Boston Celtics: Addressing the Robert Williams conundrum

Jayson Tatum’s historic performance for the Boston Celtics against the Brooklyn Nets did not come without a cost.

Robert Williams was forced to exit the game as he continues to struggle with turf toe, leaving the bulk of the front court work to Tristan Thompson and Grant Williams, who handled themselves in professional fashion.

This game continues to fuel the fire of the discourse surrounding Robert Williams’ future with the Boston Celtics. With such a checkered past, littered with injuries is he really worth paying big money?

There’s two sides to this argument and both maintain very simple stances. Those being yes, the Celtics should pay him or no, the Celtics should not pay him. There are plenty of upsides with paying him and plenty of upsides with not paying him, and depending on what else the Celtics do this off-season those negatives and positives can either become obsolete or be magnified even more. In this article I’ll be looking at the pros and cons of keeping Robert Williams or leaving him in the dust.

Lets begin with the pros.

In the latter part of the season when the Boston Celtics were showing signs of being a competent basketball team, Robert Williams stuck out as the “glue” that the kept the team together. His dynamic shot blocking, powerful rim rolling and surprisingly good passing helped the Celtics go 6-1 to start the month of April with convincing wins over New York, Portland and Denver.

Furthermore, his presence inside took a lot of pressure off of the Celtics perimeter defense and his rolling created an abundance of space for Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker to create for themselves as well as treating Rob to his fair share of thunderous lobs.

This stretch for the Celtics solidified Rob’s importance to the team moving forward, and talk surrounding a potential extension inevitably came about. Seeing as he has already proven he can impact the Cs for the greater good, has been vouched for by the franchises’ best players and coaches and won’t break the bank, it’s easy to see why Celtics fans have jumped to the conclusion that Rob will be given a long term deal. However lets pump the breaks and consider the other side.

Now for the lame part, the cons of the Boston Celtics extending Robert Williams.

The only thing stopping Rob from becoming a top 10 center in the NBA is his health. For the last few seasons it had been his work ethic, focus and fitness but those three things have all rounded into form…and yet still can’t remain healthy.

It’s not just his leg injury which he had been dealing with since college which prohibits him from playing a high amount of minutes. It’s ankle injuries, hand injuries, and now its turf toe. Every single time the Time Lord seemingly turns the corner an injury knocks him right back to the bench.

Although Williams” extension will be far from a maximum deal, presumably around 12-15 million dollars for 3 seasons, that’s still a lot of money to pay a guy who will likely not play more than 40 games a season and will potentially miss crucial playoff games.

No matter how you spin it, big men are important to playoff success. Whether that’s a small ball big, a post up big, a passing big, a switch big it doesn’t matter; they all play a pivotal roll in the success of their team and Rob has proven that his playstyle can lead to success.

However, he’s no use to the Boston Celtics on the bench which means they are not getting a maximum return on investment in paying him. The saying “availability is the best ability” comes into play with this conversation, and whether or not you believe it is irrelevant.

There aren’t many bigs that can do what Rob does and have the physical tools that he has, but there are plenty of bigs out their that can impact the Celtics to the extent Williams does. Instead of investing in him, the Cs could go out and get a starting big that’s maybe a lesser talent but can stabilize defensive units and provide basic offensive contributions and they can invest in a better back up big.

So what’s the verdict?

The Celtics have plenty of time to think this over seeing as he is not a free agent until the 2022 off-season, but if they are going to lock him up or deal him it might as well be now before other interested buyers outbid them.

It is in the C’s best interest that this does not happen. Letting Williams go after seeing what he’s capable of and seeing how well he gets along with the teams’ franchise player it would be foolish to let him go so easily.

There’s also the fact that there’s no guarantee the Boston Celtics get back someone that provides the same value as Williams if they elect to sign and trade him.

For example, the idea of trading him for Richaun Holmes has been floated around and as intriguing as that idea is lets come back to reality. Richaun Holmes is going to have at least 5 different interviews lined up with 5 different GMs to discuss what his payday is going to look like.

Even if one of those teams isn’t the Kings, the Celtics are unlikely to have enough money to outbid the other Holmes suitors. Holmes would have to agree to come to Beantown for a smaller deal and the Kings would have to agree to send him to Boston for Williams. Two big hypotheticals that don’t lean in Boston’s favor.

Instead of banking on an unlikely sign and trade going down, the Celtics would be better off extending Williams and investing in his health. Make sure he’s healthy and comfortable throughout the season so he’s good to go come playoff time. If that means load managing him then so be it, it’s up to the Cs to find a back up big capable of sliding into the starting lineup with no problem.

That big may be Tristan Thompson, that big may be someone else on the market. We won’t know until it happens but the one fact that remains is letting Williams go would be an incredibly short sighted and greedy move by the Boston Celtics front office, two traits they are not known for.