The most intriguing question coming out of the NBA draft is just what form of human torture Bill Belichick would devise if one of his players did what Terry Rozier did while the C’s were on the clock Thursday night.
First, you have to suspend disbelief and imagine that Belichick would be able to navigate FaceTime. Then keep disbelief suspended and imagine he’d take that call from, say, Joe Thuney or Eric Rowe on the day of the draft, never mind when the Patriots were on the clock.
Then, if Belichick did take the call and Joe or Eric were able to wheedle out info and surreptitiously broadcast it for the giggling pleasure of nearby nerds and a live online audience, I predict things would go badly for Joe/Eric.
Like, you’d find an arm in Wrentham. An ear in Westerly. A couple of toes in Windham. An eye and a tongue floating in a jar off of Gay Head. Nasty stuff.
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And there’d be a stern conversation with the surviving members of the team about the dangers of social media.
Terry Rozier doesn’t have to worry about that though. Nor does he – for now – have to worry about being dealt.
Because the Celtics didn’t do a damn thing on Thursday night but let the draft come to them. And when it did, they got what they needed: an offensively impotent, vine-armed center who can punch stuff into the luxury suites with regularity. That’s Robert Williams.
There really aren’t a lot of need needs on this Celtics team right now. Offensively, they have multiple guys who can create their own shot – Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Rozier and Gordon Hayward. They share the ball, they are dangerous enough from 3. What they didn’t have – and what Williams could possibly be – is a pick-and-roll finisher at the rim.
Al Horford can do that, but he’ll just as often look to kick to the corner after rolling into the middle of the lane as he will look to finish. Which is great. Horford’s the control tower and teams can’t sag and double without the fear Horford will find whoever’s being left alone. But Horford also just turned 32. His days of rolling and picking a lob out from between the banners are gone (if they ever existed).
Williams can do that. He was described during the draft on ESPN as “the best lob catcher in this draft” and the comparisons to Houston’s Clint Capela have been frequent. So frequent that when a writer for the Washington Times made the link after a pre-draft visit with the Wizards, Williams said, “I knew you were going to say that, bro. I watched him, he’s a great player. But everybody’s different. You can’t compare him to me.”
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Whether it’s scoring as the roll man or just finishing off drop-downs when wings penetrate and dish, Williams will give the C’s way more explosiveness than they had with Horford and Greg Monroe.
Defensively, Williams – or at least the image of Williams at his best – that’s where Horford will really be helped. There were times later in the postseason where Horford – after getting pounding with Joel Embiid’s prodigious posterior for a half-hour or getting bounced around by Tristan Thompson on the defensive glass – looked gassed. And played gassed. The load was too much to sustain.
Williams, 6-10 with a 7-5 wingspan, ought to be able to help there almost immediately.
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"He was a player that we liked coming into this draft process,” Danny Ainge said Thursday night. “He's a rim protector and rebounder, and a guy who can play above the rim on both ends of the court. We don't have much of that. We have a little bit of that, but not what he can do. So his abilities to protect the rim and rebound and run the floor, and I think, are some of his greatest traits and uses."
The one negative “trait” Williams allegedly possesses is an inconsistent motor. Which is a diplomatic way of saying he doesn’t try hard. It’s the main (lone?) reason he was available at 27 and not gone as a lottery pick.
Friday morning, after the Celtics weren’t able to round Williams up for a conference call with local media, the cluck-clucking picked up steam.
If it’s all true, it’s all true. But that doesn’t mean that can’t change. The kid turned 20 in October. One would think there’s still some time for growth. Especially when he’s got the confirmation that teams didn’t love the way he did his business by passing on him. Over and over and over and costing him cash along the way.
This is where Horford can really make an impact. For all the times on-court Al has been assailed with “Is that all there is…” laments, nobody ever complains about his work ethic or leadership.
And while it isn’t necessarily Horford’s job to make Williams better and himself expendable, Horford doesn’t seem the type who’d shy from mentoring a kid. Especially if the kid's presence is going to make Horford's life easier.
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“He won’t have any better role models than the guys in front of him,” Brad Stevens said of Williams.
Thursday night worked out perfectly for the Celtics. They resisted all temptations to be the life of the party by making some outrageous move. They simply added a player who – if all works positively – will be really useful and pretty solid. They’ll put him in a stable situation with a well-defined role. And if it doesn’t work out, there will be no, “WHY DIDN’T THEY (fill in the contrived outrage)?!?!?!”
What else do you want at 27?