Grant, a starter now and when TL returns is being kicked around by Jared Weiss from "The Athletic" (a very worthwhile subscription)... Posted excerpts...
https://theathletic.com/3925564/2022/11/23/celtics-grant-williams-starting-lineup/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983
Boston visited Memphis and Mazzulla wanted to try it out. White went to the bench and
Williams got the start. He needed his defense to start imposing its will. Boston had to win the rebounding battle. The offense was clicking, but the physicality on defense was missing. Could Williams help set that tone from the beginning?
Well, it took them two weeks to lose another game, with
Chicago finally getting the best of them Monday evening to snap a nine-game winning streak.
Marcus Smart and
Malcolm Brogdon were both healthy, yet Williams remained a starter and White came off the bench. Why is Mazzulla sticking with Williams?
The fourth-year big is averaging 11.1 points in 32.7 minutes per night since joining the starting lineup two weeks ago. He’s shooting 43.2 percent from deep on 4.6 attempts per game, while Boston’s defensive rating has been eighth in the league over these past eight games. Those are the numbers of someone winning their bet.
Twenty percent of the way through the season, he has become a legitimate wing who is looking to put the ball on the floor to make plays through the paint. He can change his direction with the ball and even drive different angles depending on how the defender closes out on him. He can kick it back behind him, throw it to the far corner or even slip it to a teammate hiding in the dunker spot behind the hoop. He’s gone from a basic passer to a real playmaking floor-spacer.
The most notable difference this year has been the types of players he’s guarding, as Mazzulla will often have him start on a guard or wing before switching on to another big.
Williams is guarding the pick-and-rolls most of the time while the center hangs back on the baseline, so they often will have him in switch so he can bully a star off the ball and then jump onto a rolling big heading for the post. That helps prevent the post mismatches that hurt Boston early in the season and reduce cross-matches overall.
“In different lineups, you have to be prepared to do different things,” Williams said. “Fortunately, in the starting lineup, I’ll probably start on the best player and just switch or maintain that matchup. It’s kind of different than when you’re in the second unit and you have to do a better job of understanding who’s on the court at the right time.”
Starting Williams next to Horford has steadied Boston’s defensive rating, which ballooned for the first nine games of the season aside from an easy win over
Washington and the second overtime loss to
Cleveland. The Celtics had a defensive rating of 35 percent or lower in six of those first nine games, but have been above 50 percent in six of the eight consecutive games Williams has started since.
The defensive rebound rate has also stabilized a bit over this span, which is a gamble with Williams out there that is paying off in the aggregate. He gives up a height advantage most of the time, but he boxes out hard to get balls to fall into his hands more often than not.
“I’m a guy that you’ll never know what coverage I’ll be in,” Williams said. “I may be switching, I may be playing in touch or drop. You’ll never know what I’ll be in. For me, it’s just whatever coach asks me to do, I’ll be prepared for it.”
One of the rewards of starting is coming into the game knowing who you’re gonna guard and who else is out there. The starting lineups don’t change as much as the second-unit rotations, and starters are announced before the game. Williams can spend the first six minutes of the game knowing exactly who he wants to guard and who he’s picking up in a switch.
When he started against
Oklahoma City, he spent time guarding a red-hot
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, then picked up
Aleksej Pokuševski. Going from an unstoppable finisher to a high-flying 7-footer, Williams has to play completely differently to handle such a wide range of players.
But he’s never been a clean fit anywhere in his career thus far. Williams had to carve out his space to find a place he belongs. When Rob Williams comes back sometime in the near future, it’s unclear where Grant Williams will end up. He’s playing at a level where it may make sense for Horford to move to the bench, keeping him fresh as he tries to stay healthy for another deep postseason run.