Robert Williams makes a lot of people lean forward in their seats. When he’s on the floor, people want to see the spectacular plays — the alley oops, the put-back dunks. They don’t want to see this.
Williams went 0-7 in his preseason opener with a few too many shots that left a bad taste in his coach’s mouth.
“(He) settled for some mid-rangers he didn't have to,” Ime Udoka said after the team’s practice on Thursday. “We told him obviously we want to get back to what you do well, which is a hard roller and being a lob threat, catching those pocket passes.
"He got an opportunity to do that where he kind of got stuck in the middle ground, so we stressed that to him like, sprinting up with speed, getting out quick, being the threat he is and then setting screens, he slipped out of a lot of screens and we really wanted him to set those, cause a mismatch 2-on-1 on the backside and then he can get up to his rolls.”
Williams seems to be adjusting more than other players so far this camp. Not only is he switching out onto guards defensively, he’s trying to find his place in a revamped offense that might have him trying to navigate playing off of Al Horford.
While Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have had plenty of time together over the years, and even Smart and Williams have good chemistry leading to a lot of lobs, the Horford/Williams dynamic is a work in progress.
“It’s been great these last couple of weeks as far as Al just giving me a lot of teaching points,” Williams said. “A lot of stuff to look for as far as when he's got the ball, just communicating with me, telling me what he’s going to do. So it’s been good.”
The sooner they figure things out, the better. We can try to read the tea leaves when it comes to the opening night starters, and it sure seems like it’ll be Horford and Williams, but nothing is set in stone.
“We’ve had several different lineups here,” Udoka said. “We've gone big and small and we've seen Al with Rob quite a bit and they're doing a great job.”
One of the early factors in trying to figure out Boston’s lineups was Horford’s availability on back-to-backs. His age and his history of knee soreness certainly lends itself to being ultra-cautious, but the Celtics clearly think he’ll be able to handle the workload.
“A goal of his is to obviously play in a ton of games,” Udoka said. “We’ll discuss things down the line as we get into the season, but for now yeah, we’re definitely looking at back to backs. As I mentioned, he didn’t play half the season last year. He feels great, he looks great. He’s in great shape. So that’s something he wants to do is be an every night guy, someone we depend on for leadership and things on the court.”
If they do share the court together, Williams will have to figure out how to be his best self without settling for jumpers. Yes, expanding his range will be helpful, and there will be a time for him to shoot those shots, but the Celtics need him to be the vertical threat he’s been to be successful.
ROTATION DEPTH
There are only so many minutes to go around, which means a minutes crunch is coming for a few players.
“We feel comfortable with 10 to 12 of our guys ... It’ll play itself out over these last three preseason games, last two weeks of training camp,” Udoka said. “It's hard to play 12 guys obviously every night; 9-10 is a more manageable number. So that's where the competition lies.”
Eight of the ten should be obvious right now. Tatum, Brown, Smart, Horford, and Robert Williams are the expected starters with Dennis Schröder, Josh Richardson, and Juancho Hernangomez as reserves.
That leaves two more spots for Payton Pritchard, Aaron Nesmith, Grant Williams, Romeo Langford, and Enes Kanter in a manageable rotation. Two more spots can go to guys in situational roles.
That doesn’t bode well for Jabari Parker, who is on a non-guaranteed deal. That guarantee kicks in at the beginning of the season.
LEAVE THE REFS ALONE
Udoka has instructed his players to dump the histrionics when dealing with the refs.
“I've stressed that to our team. We got a little chippy out here in practice, guys getting after it, and I said, 'You know, let me bitch at the refs,’” he said. “ You guys play through plays and move onto the next thing and let me be the guy that complains to the refs.' But that's not the team we want to be and that's not who I am, so I don't want the team to start crying about every call. ... That's definitely not me.”
That’ll be music to the ears to everyone bothered by Tatum looking like he’s signaling for a touchdown after every drive to the rim.
PHILADELPHIA DIDN’T SEE BOSTON AS RIVALS ...
... but it’s not because they felt cocky.
“When I was there, Joel (Embiid) shut all that down,” Richardson said. “He was like, 'They always kick our ass so it's not a rivalry so we're treating it like that.' So I mean, it wasn't really much of a rivalry, it was just like, 'These guys are good, and are coming in here to whoop us so let's compete.'”
RICHARDSON TINKERING WITH HIS SHOT
The difference between the Richardson who drew raves in Miami and the guy who struggled offensively in Philadelphia and Dallas is a janky jump shot.
“(The problem is) just my balance,” Richardson said. “I think sometimes when I get tired, I kind of get lazy sometimes with it. Just focusing on keeping my balance with my feet on my shot.”
He hopes to find that balance on Saturday so he can shoot better than 1-for-8 from the field.
“It’s still the first preseason game. You’ve got to get your legs under you and everything,” he said. “Honestly I don’t think any of us are hoping to shoot that bad again for the rest of the season. I think we shot like 30-something percent for the game. But it’s just confidence knowing where my shot’s going to come from and I’ll be ready.”