There's a certain, I don’t know, I’ll call it oblivious nature to Robert Williams. There's a refreshing purity to him. Nothing is calculated. He’s just Rob, for better or for worse.
When he speaks, he speaks his truth. Like when he was asked about finishing a lob of a wild, unexpected, unprecedented Grant Williams coast-to-coast drive, he set the record straight.
“It was not a pass. It was not a pass,” he said, in his gregarious, animated fashion. “I love Grant to death, yeah it wasn’t a pass. That was a floater. I seen him do that floater plenty of times.”
This is Robert Williams at his genuine best. He is who he is, on and off the court. Honest about himself and his game, Williams takes the floor every night looking to simply do what he does. More and more, what Williams does is make a significant contribution to Boston’s chances of winning.
“He just makes it easier for us,” Jayson Tatum said. “Rob can guard anybody, especially with how just active he is and how long his arms are. You always know you got protection behind you if you get beat. I think just his communication is the biggest area of growth this season compared to previous ones. He's just a lot more comfortable.”
Tatum is as big a cheerleader for Williams as anyone on the team. His biggest streak of the season might be media sessions in which he talks about Robert Williams.
“I feel like I talk about Rob every day, but he deserves it,” Tatum said while singling Williams out as the next non-Jay who deserves an All-Star nod. “I think Rob has the potential to win Defensive Player of the Year one year, one of these days. I think that's in his future.”
Williams notched another five blocked shots against the Pistons, keeping him at fourth in the NBA, just behind some French guy … Rudy something or other.
“Yeah. Rob, why can't you be Rudy Gobert?” Tatum joked at shootaround. “I think Rob has that kind of potential, especially just to affect the game without really having the ball. He can have that type of impact on the game.”
When Williams made the game-saving block on PJ Washington in Boston’s last win, Marcus Smart said, “I actually told him, ‘You look like me out there. You’re going to beat me out for being one of the best defenders out here. So keep going. I’m proud of you.’ Rob is phenomenal. The athleticism he has to be able to guard 1-5 at his size is just tremendous. We need that from him. We need Rob every night to be that Rob.”
It’s Smart’s connection with Williams that makes a lot of that possible. On one play against Detroit, Smart actually pointed to a spot on the floor where Williams should be standing. He slid up to that spot and then blocked a jump shot seconds later.
Smart and Williams are good for each other. Smart’s smarts help Williams learn more on the defensive end, while Rob’s lobs keep piling up Smart’s assists.
“We both know our job on the court. We both look to each other for that energy, for that drive, and that will,” Williams said. “Sometimes we just look at each other in the game and just say, hey, we gotta step it up and everyone else will follow. Defensively setting a tone and we just got a great connection. I know when he’s driving, where he’s trying to throw dump-off passes. I know how to get open for him when I'm screening for him. Like I said, we just got a really great connection throughout the whole game.”
This play in particular stood out.
Williams stepped up for a pass and Smart stood there, dribbling, and Rob got the message. He made the slightest hint of going to screen for Jaylen Brown before breaking for the hoop. Smart found him like Tom Brady finding Wes Welker on a slant in the faintest sliver of space between a linebacker and a safety. Rob’s lobs strike again.
The story of this season has been Boston’s quest for consistency. Part of that has been their inability to stay healthy and get a decent stretch of games with their normal rotation together. Now that they’ve had it for a couple of weeks, it’s become pretty clear.
Robert Williams is supremely important to Boston’s success. It’s something that has shown itself from time to time in the past, but health hasn’t allowed for it to fully blossom. Now it has.
“He’s been huge, his progress throughout the year week to week,” Ime Udoka said of Williams. “Ceiling — not even close to reaching his ceiling, he’s improved in a lot of areas this year, impacting the game in every kind of way. I think everybody sees the value in what he brings to the game on both sides of the ball. He’s growing in confidence and we all love to see it.”
