Boston Celtics offseason questions #5: Can Robert Williams finally become Boston’s X-factor?

The Celtics are hoping this summer can bring the moves, staff hires, and internal improvement to get them the next couple of steps forward needed to win a title. This series looks at questions that need to be answered for that to happen.

Question 1: What will the new CBA do to this roster?

Question 2: How will the Kristaps Porzingis trade impact the Celtics?

Question 3: How does Joe Mazzulla grow as head coach?

Question 4: How many Celtics theoreticals become reality?

After the draft and free agency, the only hoops morsels on which NBA fans can subsist until training camp opens are workout videos and Pro Ams. 

Fans are still hungry for stuff in the two-month NBA hibernation. So when someone like Robert Williams throws them a few crumbs in a video showing him working on expanding his game, fans start to buzz a bit. 

Williams moved to Houston and hired Aaron Miller as his new personal trainer. Miller, in conjunction with the Celtics, is putting Williams through a tightly coordinated series of high- and low-intensity workouts aimed at adding some elements to Williams’ offense, while getting him in the kind of physical condition necessary to break his personal record of 61 games played in a season. 

“Rob is excited,” Miller said on NBC Sports Boston’s “Celtics Talk” podcast. “This is his first healthy offseason in a little while, so he’s ready to jump into it and get to work.”

That work includes direct involvement from the Celtics training staff. Everyone involved understands the goal is to keep Williams healthy and available. First and foremost, just getting the same Robert Williams we’ve seen over the past few years, when healthy, for 70 games would be very welcome in Boston. Getting him for a full, healthy season with some added wrinkles in his game? Well, that could be a game-changer. 

This is what Celtics fans have been waiting for with Williams. At his best, he’s a lob-catching, shot-blocking, athletic freak who puts pressure on other teams just by existing. Offensively, his rolls to the basket demand attention. Defensively, his presence in the paint deters opponents from even thinking of attacking the rim. 

"He's a huge part of our opportunity to be great,” Brad Stevens recently said. “Rob does give us a different dynamic with his ability to play way above the rim on both ends of the floor."

But imagine if he’s able to do more.   

“In the last three years, Rob is the second-best cutter, so he's great without the ball,” Miller said. “But how can we be great with the ball in our hands? How can we contribute to the offense even if teams aren't scouting for us? If they are doubling Jayson (Tatum) and Jaylen (Brown) off those handoffs, how can I catch it and make a skip pass to somebody else for an open shot?”

Or, maybe take the shot himself. 

As I said last week, all Williams needs to do is take three shots that aren’t dunks per game. A jump hook, a counter to that, and one 15-footer is all he needs to make defenses pay for backing off of him. The jumpers he’s taking in the workout videos are slow, but they don’t have to be quick releases when he’s making a defender pay for backing off. 

Boston’s offense is obviously going to revolve around Tatum and Brown, with a heavy dose of 3-pointers from everyone on the perimeter. Williams’ job is to create the vertical spacing, drawing defenders in towards the paint as he rolls down the middle towards the hoop. But if he can mix in something to keep the defense honest from time to time, it will fundamentally change how he’s defended. 

For example, this play from last December against the Clippers. 

If he pulled a play like that off once every few games, that would constitute enough of a threat that a defense would have to account for it. If Williams became a threat to fake a handoff and get his own shot or draw a foul, then it would force his defender to stay home on him and not cheat to help on Tatum or Brown. With less help in their way, Boston’s stars will have more room to operate, fewer hands in their way. 

Whether it’s a play like that, another pass to keep the offense moving, or a jump shot to keep a sagging defense honest, there are elements that can be added to Robert Williams’ game to make him enough of a threat to require some attention. 

The best way to make Boston’s offense completely unstoppable is to have five guys on the floor who need to be defended. We know what Robert Williams can do for the defense, and his health is obviously one of the biggest obstacles to his success. But a fully realized TimeLord -- the guy who earned an eight-figure salary next season -- will be a player who not only helps facilitate a fluid offense, but who also has enough in his arsenal to make defenses pay for leaving him. 

If he can be that kind of player, the Celtics will be extraordinarily difficult to stop.