The December 15 soft opening to the trade season opened this week with the Celtics, by all accounts, being quiet.
That's because December 16 brought them an acquisition bigger than anyone they could find on the open market: the return of Robert Williams.
Williams got off the bench about five minutes into Boston’s loss to Orlando, drawing a standing ovation just by standing up. Checking into the game turned the volume up to 10. His first alley-oop tested the tensile strength of the building.
“Felt good. Felt great, actually,” Williams said, though he admitted to being “tired as hell in the first four minutes.”
It didn’t take long for Williams to give the crowd what they wanted. The alley-oop came on his fourth trip down the floor (the first was an offensive foul on a moving screen … oops) and it’s exactly what he needed to feel like himself again.
“It was just like a sense of calm,” he said. “I think after the first dunk it was kind of like, yeah, I can just breathe. But everything followed after that, intensity, effort.”
It wasn’t a big, triumphant return by any means. Williams admitted to being a step slow, which is to be expected in a game that was part preseason reintroduction to his old teammates and first chance to play with an important new one in Malcolm Brogdon. He was also a bit hyped and nervous, a combination that led to three personal fouls in just a couple of minutes.
“It's an adjustment, offensively, for sure, having someone that rolls hard and can catch it at the rim,” Brogdon said. “Defensively, It's not, honestly, the adjustment is once I get beat now I know someone's gonna go clean it up. It’s gonna be really good playing with him.”
It’s clear that Williams’ return is going to be meaningful for the Celtics.
“I thought he picked up where he left off as far as his weak side defense,” Joe Mazzulla said after the game. “I thought he did a good job with presence at the rim, and he just looked comfortable out there so I was happy for him.”
There were a couple of plays that stood out aside from the highlights he still manages to put out there even as he is slowly trying to work his way back in.
The Magic got a steal and Cole Anthony got the ball and a chance to attack the basket, but the instant he saw Robert Williams, he backed off.
He’s a deterrent in that way, and while I don’t know for sure what Anthony would have done if someone else was out there, I know he’s definitely not one who is afraid of attacking the basket. This is part of why Williams is so important.
He also can scare the bejesus out of guys who have pretty open lanes to the rim.
The mid-air adjustment led to the missed layup, and it happened because Williams sprung from his position to suddenly challenge the shot. That's a testament to how fast he can get from one point to another. Franz Wagner looked to have a wide open lane, and suddenly Williams shot out of a cannon.
Jayson Tatum said one of the biggest ways Williams can impact the game is “just the way he alters shots, his presence. I think he had one or two blocked shots. As he gets more in shape and more in rhythm, he'll have that much more impact on the game, especially on the defensive end.”
The Celtics have needed help on defense and these first 17 minutes showed just how important Williams is to shoring that up. The blocked shots are great, but turning people away from the rim and scaring them into misses will be even bigger because it gets the other team thinking and wondering where he is on the floor.
Concerns about his offensive fit, if anyone had them, should be eased as well. I never was really worried, but I understood the questions about throwing a non-shooter into the mix with a team that had, this game notwithstanding, been shooting at a historically great level.
I’m not sure people recalled what kind of passer he can be.
Again, Williams scared the Magic so much that they completely ignored Brogdon in the corner. Williams has the ability to either go up and dunk through a guy in that situation, or to escape and hit Brogdon with an absolute laser straight into his shooting pocket.
Williams played 17 minutes, and those minutes told us that it won’t take long for him to get back to doing what he has always done. He said he felt fine after the game, but part of the process will be to see how his body reacts to his first NBA minutes of the season. Basketball can be really hard on the body, but slowly, Williams will get back up to speed.
On a night when almost nothing went right for the Celtics on the floor, they made one of the most meaningful additions a team could make in the middle of December. It’s pretty clear that once he’s 100%, he’ll be able to help the Celtics do a lot more on the court.