From the Athletic:
BOSTON — Just let it go. That’s the first thing Grant Williams remembers his coach telling him.
Assistant coach Ben Sullivan was known for turning Giannis Antetokounmpo into a plausible shooter in Milwaukee before being poached by Ime Udoka last season. His task with the Celtics was to take Williams, who had flashed potential as a shooter earlier in his career, and turn him into the ideal 3-and-D big.
It worked. Williams was instrumental in the Celtics’ NBA Finals run last season and came into the year looking like he was ready to make a leap. But it’s all come crashing down lately, with Williams once again barely making it into the rotation in Wednesday’s 115-93 win over the Blazers to snap a three-game losing streak.
But when Williams stepped in to start the fourth quarter of a blowout, he immediately launched a 3 and crisply snapped the net. He ended up taking seven shots from deep in the fourth quarter, only hitting two of them. But it didn’t matter.
After the humiliating missed free throws in Cleveland 48 hours earlier, Williams wanted to get out there and send it. Shoot with no abandon, at least within the realm of pragmatism. If he can’t earn the place he’s held down for over a season now, he’s coming out swinging, just as his coach wants him to.
“(Sullivan) said it best, ’I’d rather you take the shot and us tell you to wind it back than not take it at all,’” Williams told The Athletic after the game. “That’s the perspective that I’m going into now. If you’re open or you have the opportunity, whether it’s a little bit contested or open, you let it go and you think about everything else after.”
That’s the key for Williams: He has to stop thinking. He has more time to ruminate than ever, as he spends games watching from the bench. Williams could either get caught up in his feelings or continue to reinforce his reputation as the consummate teammate.
So even though there are times when he looks frustrated, he spent most of the first three quarters Wednesday night doing his usual teammate rituals and cracking jokes harsh enough to get Blake Griffin to throw a towel in his face as he ran off laughing. It was a fun moment on what was a somber individual night for Williams once again, but that — or the plethora of shots he put up once he got into the game — couldn’t erase the feeling he’s been carrying throughout the past month.
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“If I was happy right now, then you would say I didn’t care about basketball,” Williams said. “For me, you just gotta go out there and do what you’re asked. That’s the position I’m in, you’re not the top guy, you’re not the bottom guy, so you gotta focus on what you can control.”
The biggest thing Williams is trying to control is the discomfort in his right elbow. As reported by The Athletic Tuesday, he’s been dealing with a ligament injury and that has thrown off several facets of his game. But he hasn’t questioned suiting up every day since he said he first hurt it against Philadelphia in early February.
“It’s a weird injury, but you play through it because that’s what you do for the team,” said Williams. “It don’t matter if your numbers go down, it don’t matter if your minutes go down because of it, you just do whatever it takes to help the team win.”
That’s typically been defensive versatility, smart ball movement and knockdown shooting. But the last part became seemingly impossible as the soreness in his arm worsened last month and he tried to get used to shooting with a sleeve brace on. But as much as it was a pain threshold issue, it was really the delicate touch of being the same shooter every time you touch the ball.
“In the beginning, it was confidence because when you deal with something that affects your shooting, you’re hesitant to shoot,” Williams said. “But even then, sometimes when you’re identified as a shooter without believing you are a shooter your whole life, you got to get used to just letting things go and not thinking afterward. That’s the mentality I have now, that if you’re open, let it go. If it’s a shot that coach didn’t want you to shoot, he’ll tell you.”
That started to pay dividends against Cleveland Monday, as his free-throw bricks overshadowed hitting four 3-pointers in one quarter. Williams said he’s been receiving cortisone treatments to improve the elbow, which is helping his consistency come back.
“Shot’s feeling good, medicine helps, so it’s just a matter of continuing to be confident and continuing to shoot the way I am,” Williams said. “From now on, it’s a matter of letting it go, let the shot fly, and think about everything after.”
But he did go 2-for-7 from deep on Wednesday, the ideal volume without the desired execution. But with all the opportunity he’s lost in the past week, he’ll take the chance at the opportunity itself.
“For me, it’s just a matter of maintaining that perspective, that no matter if you’re making 12 shots or you’re making zero, you just gotta go out there and try to perform to the best of your ability and make an impact on winning. Nothing else besides that,” Williams said.
When talking about the state of the Celtics overall, Jaylen Brown said he and his teammates can’t get caught up in their individual stats or “get caught up in our own individual way of thinking.”
“It’s you vs. you every single night,” Brown said. “The opponent for us is there, but it’s all about us.”
There was a consistent theme to Brown’s words and several other Celtics this past week that everyone’s out of rhythm and that’s causing most of the team to look inward instead of outward for a path back to their best. It’s manifested in the style of play in crunch time.
As Williams’ dilemma scales up the depth chart, Derrick White is experiencing a similar conundrum at times. White is a glue guy like Williams, whose skillset is limited but whose impact is nuanced. So it was such a shock to see him putting up big numbers when Marcus Smart was recently injured — big enough the NBA gave him a Player of the Week award last month.
Throughout much of this season, White has arguably been Boston’s third-best player. Yet he recently found himself on the bench for crunch time, something Joe Mazzulla surprisingly called a mistake. White is used to being the odd man out on such a deep roster, but this seems like it’s his time to shine. So when White was asked how he handles those moments of losing the opportunity after possibly the best stretch of his career, he was even-keeled as always.
“I mean, I’m playing basketball, I’m blessed. So I’m just trying to have the right perspective on things, but just understand that it’s a team game,” White said. “I just try to be consistent with everything in my day-to-day. Not try to get too high if I close and make a big play, and if I don’t close, try not to get too low. Just try to stay consistent, and I’ll feel comfortable either way.”
Consistency has been the biggest reason Williams finds himself on the outside looking in. Whether it’s because of his injury, role inconsistency after Rob Williams’ season debut, trying to expand his game too rapidly ahead of a contract year, or many other potential variables, the past is not indicating the future for Grant Williams — or this team — at the moment.
They are all in a funk, but are often reminded of how good they can be. It’s just not for a full game these days. There are too many times when they cruise along like they forgot the level of perfection required to make it as far as they did the last season.
“Last year was a crazy season, but last year’s gone,” Jaylen Brown said. “This is a totally different year. We are currently second in the East and we’re fighting to get back to that number one spot. But at the end of the day, we’re just fighting to stay healthy and play good basketball.”
Williams is already hurt and he’s already out of his secure spot in the rotation. Now he can’t do much besides fight to stay healthy and play good basketball. Control what you can control.
“If you do anything else, you’re gonna drive yourself mad and crazy,” he said. “For me, it’s just a matter of keeping my head down. It’s never been when things don’t go your way, you back down and shy away and you’re like ‘F this.’ It’s always been how do I bounce back?”
Topic: Is Grant a goner? (Yes: Traded to DAL for second rounders) (Read 74866 times)