Boston Celtics: 2 players who benefit most from the Daniel Theis trade

Boston Celtics player No. 2) Robert Williams III

Leading into this year’s trade deadline, a massive amount of attention was geared towards the C’s frontcourt and what their potential plans were to bolster it. Because of their supposed need for a legitimate big man, many fans and analysts alike expected them to go all-in for one of the top centers/ bigs rumored to be available.

However, we at the Houdini had a different mindset about the team’s needs, stating that Boston should focus more on pursuing a legitimate floor general/ facilitator to help better complement their star wing duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

A reason why we felt comfortable in bypassing the pursuit of a potential “answer” at the starting center slot was that we believe the answer they’re looking for is already on the team, and his name is Robert Williams III.

Since coming to the team as a rookie back in 2017, the hype surrounding the Texas A&M product was real. Unfortunately, however, through the first two years of his career time was hard to come by due to both the presence of All-Star big Al Horford in year one coupled with a myriad of injuries through both seasons.

Now, in year three, Williams is seemingly healthy & is not finding himself competing with a permanent fixture down low for playing time. With this new phase in his career, the big man is seemingly loving every minute of it and so, too, is the Houdini.

Boasting career highs virtually all across the board, Time Lord is finding himself averaging 7.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.7 blocks per game on 73 percent shooting in just 17 minutes per game.

To put this into perspective, per-36 minute conversions, the center is putting up a stellar 16.1 points, 13.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 3.6 blocks.

Now, while these are obviously just hypothetical conversions, when actually logging meaningful minutes this season it’s evident that his level of play goes way up with it and, with this, it looks to be in the ballpark level of where these per 36 conversions would have you believe he can produce.

When logging 20-29 minutes, Williams finds himself putting up averages of 11.5 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.7 blocks per game on a whopping 78 percent shooting from the floor.

This month alone, the 23-year-old is averaging 21.3 minutes a night and is following this uptick in minutes with 10.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.8 blocks per night on 76 percent shooting from the floor.

To sum things up, Robert Williams has already shown he’s deserving of an increased role within the rotation, he just needs the minutes. With Daniel Theis now out of the picture in Boston, said minutes should soon follow.