Though they have proven to be such an accomplished team over these last five or so seasons, the Boston Celtics are consistently finding themselves rolling out one of the youngest rosters in the entire league.
Even with the likes of 35-year-old Al Horford in tow, the shamrocks still hold a below league average age for their entire squad and, despite their lack of overall experience, they have managed to become legitimate title-contenders with their high-end production.
Of these youngsters–outside of the obvious choices like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown–, there are several who look to be deserving of long-standing tenures with the ball club moving forward, and, of this bunch, the folks at Bleacher Report believe that the team’s best youthful prospect is third-year forward, Grant Williams.
Citing his ability to positively affect the game with his trusty shooting stroke, underrated defensive tenacity, and overall rotational amenability, writer, Dan Favale, believes that Williams has proven himself to easily be one of this team’s most impactful role players in 2021-22:
"Initial projections had him developing into Baby Al Horford. That clearly isn’t happening. But he has turned himself into an endlessly scalable player, someone who opens all sorts of lineup combinations thanks to his low usage, floor spacing and capacity to soak up reps alongside other bigs.Since we’re all friends here, I’ll be honest: It is hard for me to pinpoint what, exactly, Williams should become on defense. But he has some real portability. Bigs who don’t wield obscene amounts of explosion cannot typically recover as well when caught off-balance, in space, versus slippery ball-handlers. Williams every so often makes a stop that hearkens to his extreme shiftiness—like when he blocked Ja Morant while backpedaling in Boston’s March 3 win over Memphis.Williams has entrenched himself as almost a pure accessory at the other end, in the best imaginable way. He can decision-make around the basket and has traces of a floor game, but he now cuts his teeth as an outside marksman. Nearly two-thirds of his attempts come from beyond the arc, where he’s burying 44 percent of his shots, including a whopping 51 percent from the corners."
All season long, Grant Williams has been proving himself to be an integral part of this team’s lineup, and has even been described as the Boston Celtics version of P.J. Tucker (high praise, indeed).
Through 62 games played, the power forward finds himself boasting career numbers seemingly all across the board, with per-game averages of 7.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, one assist, and just shy of a block on nearly 49 percent shooting from the floor and 43.5 percent shooting from deep.
Still just 23-years-old, there’s plenty of time for Williams to continue growing and, in turn, become a long-term staple within the main rotation for the Boston Celtics.
By the looks of it, an extension offer is right around the corner for the 6-6 quasi-big man and, frankly, it’s well deserved.