3 Boston Celtics players that need to step up in Robert Williams’ absence

For a while there, it seemed like this Boston Celtics team was impenetrable; that nothing could stand in their way as they continued to make their journey up the Eastern Conference standings and head into the 2022 postseason with true aspirations and great odds of hoisting banner No. 18 into the rafters at TD Garden by year’s end.

Unfortunately, the team’s smooth sailing on the open seas recently collided with hurricane-like conditions, as news broke Monday morning that rising star center, Robert Williams III, is feared to have suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee which, in turn, could lead to an “indefinite absence.”

Easily having himself the best season of his young pro career, boasting career numbers virtually all across the board while serving as one of, if not the main leader for the team’s top-ranked defensive attack, the loss of Time Lord is going to be a major blow for this C’s team to try and move past and, in the wake of his absence, we at HH believe that there are now 3 players, in specific, that must be looked upon to step up for Boston:

Boston Celtics player No. 1) Daniel Theis

Frankly, this type of situation very well may have been the main reason why Brad Stevens and co. opted to bring Daniel Theis back to Boston at this year’s deadline in the first place.

Now, while he may not be the overall talent that Robert Williams is, the 29-year-old has a proven track record of excelling in a high usage role for this team, and, with these now 29.6 minutes within the rotation up for grabs, the German-born baller is likely going to be relied on in a similar fashion that he once was.

The last time we saw Theis serving as a key frontcourt contributor for the shamrocks, he went on to put up 14.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per 75 possessions on 55 percent shooting from the floor and 35 percent shooting from deep, all while boasting the second-best defensive rating and defensive box-plus minus rating on the entire team (of those who logged over 800 minutes on the year) behind only Robert Williams himself.

Though losing Time Lord is most certainly not an ideal scenario, using Theis as a primary big could actually go on to benefit Boston in a few ways, especially in the floor-spacing department where, while his career 33 percent 3-point shooting stroke may be far from “automatic” it’s notably an improvement over Williams’ non-existent long-range game (0-for-3 from deep for his career).