Boston Celtics: What Robert Williams’ return means for the C’s playoff push

The Boston Celtics have targeted an early March timetable for the return of big man Robert Williams. What will the return of the Time Lord mean for the C’s moving into the playoff push?

Robert Williams has been out of the Boston Celtics rotation since the beginning of December with a left hip bone edema. In layman’s terms, it’s something akin to a deep bone bruise. The team has been quite cautious with Williams, careful not to bring someone so reliant on his athleticism back too soon from a nagging injury like this.

Several cryptic tweets issued by Williams in the past few weeks have stirred some speculation regarding when exactly his return might be. However, now we have something more concrete with the team announcing that Williams began practicing in full about a week ago. The Celtics have indicated that they would like the Williams, otherwise known as Time Lord, to get a couple weeks practice under his belt before his targeted return in the beginning of March.

Although Boston has sorely missed Williams’ explosiveness at the rim and incredible shot blocking abilities, the front court rotation is mostly in a good place right now. They chose not to pull the trigger on a trade deadline deal, which saw guys like Clint Capela and Andre Drummond, both linked to the C’s at various times this season, be shipped off to new teams.

Perhaps that had something to do with the imminent return of Williams.

However, their current personnel deserves much credit as well. Daniel Theis is playing at a high level and has been their de facto front court anchor. He’s kept up his elite-level rim protection and has become a reliable pick-and-pop threat. Grant Williams has also seen an uptick in minutes, including a few starts when Enes Kanter or Theis was inactive. G-Will has also been their go-to small ball center and, to his credit, he’s played quite well in those opportunities. Kanter continues to be rather inconsistent and remains the most polarizing on-court player in the front court, but despite that he’s still rebounding at an elite rate.

Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, and Jaylen Brown have also stepped up tremendously, especially in those small-ball situations that the Boston Celtics have been reliant on. They’ve all had to play some power forward, and at times even guarding some centers. The shamrocks’ most potent small ball lineup sees all three of them in the game playing forward, and these regular season reps should pay dividends come playoff time.

The return of Williams comes at an opportune time. Boston has been increasingly reliant on Theis, who has been logging 30+ minutes on a consistent basis against some of the league’s best forwards. Robert Williams will give them another big interior presence to add to the rotation that they sorely lack with Grant Williams and Kanter. They can now deploy those small ball lineups more tactically, rather than out of necessity.

Williams will also add another dimension in the pick and roll, particularly alongside Kemba Walker. Walker is the pick and roll ball handler on a whopping 47 percent of his possessions. But since Robert Williams’ injury, Walker has seen less p&rl opportunities having to play alongside Kanter and Grant Williams, who are both league-average roll men in terms of efficiency.

Prior to his injury Williams was the Boston Celtics’ most efficient pick and roll center, averaging 1.21 points per possession. Adding another competent pick and roll partner will open up more scoring opportunities for Walker.

Simply put, once Williams is fully integrated back into the rotation, between he and Theis, Walker will almost always have an excellent option to run action off of. This will also free up the likes of Tatum and Hayward to play off the ball a bit more, rather than them acting as the roll man.

In addition to the boon of the pick and roll, Williams’ return will add a legitimate defensive disruptor back into the game. Kanter’s defensive struggles have been well documented throughout his career, and Grant Williams’ high motor and effort-level are unfortunately offset by his lack of length.

Williams is not only an excellent shot blocker, but has averaged nearly a steal per game so far this year. The Celtics are among the top of the league in both steals (10th) and blocks (6th), and have relied upon these live-ball turnovers to help create fast break offense. Williams will only add to that.

Perhaps above all else, Williams’ return to the lineup will mean a huge increase in Timelord-related memes. As one of the reigning kings of Celtics twitter, Williams is as exciting and dynamic on the court as he is memeable off it.