Boston Celtics: Robert Williams really misses Daniel Theis

Oftentimes, myself included, the NBA media can be a very business-driven bunch. Here at Hardwood Houdini, the focus is all Boston Celtics, but every day, mock trades for every team across the league are fired off at rapid rates to fill the appetites of the transaction-happy NBA fanbase.

Lost in all of the hoopla of who is going where are the actual players themselves. Remember, this isn’t NBA 2K. Real human beings’ livelihoods are on the line every time a trade happens in any professional sport.

Remember, just as the rest of us do, these players have preferences for where they’d like to live. Not everyone is built for the harsh weather conditions and lack of manners (that is weirdly a pride point) of the Northeast. On the flip side, some players may find life boring in smaller markets.

Every player has a story, and many times, they are not the ones who determine the content on each page.

Trades take that power away. Besides the very best of the best, guys don’t get to control their destiny like that. This is all to say, life as a traded NBAer is difficult.

It could be even more difficult for those left behind.

Take Boston Celtics center Robert Williams for example. The third-year big man was always a project when he was taken out of Texas A&M in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft, but he was showing flashes in his time on the floor in his first two seasons before breaking out this year.

Clearly, Williams had a lot to learn from former teammate Daniel Theis–who was just traded to the Chicago Bulls on March 25th at the trade deadline–and parlayed that into competing for the starting role with Boston’s prize offseason acquisition, Tristan Thompson.

Theis being dealt to the Bulls clearly had an effect on Williams, and he shared as much with Celtics.com’s Taylor Snow:

As Bill Withers once said, “we all need somebody to lean on”. Sometimes, we forget that players (particularly non-stars) have each other to lean on…until they don’t.

While Williams didn’t play on Monday night, Theis had a six points, six rebounds, and four assists in his return to the TD Garden in a 102-96 triumph for the Bulls over the Boston Celtics.