Vague rumor: RWill Thought to be Gone

[footey]

RWilliams will get $3.6M next season.  That is a fair amount.  I do see him as expendable, especially if we don't move Thompson.  We really don't need them both.  If we are able to move Thompson, then I doubt RWilliams goes anywhere.

We have 4 players right now that can only play center and one FA (Kornet) who we can sign easily if we want.  There is going to be some movement here.  It would be nice if some of these bigs could play PF also.  As it stands, only one of Horford, Thompson, RWill, and MBrown can be on the court at a time.

Our PFs are GWill (undersized) and Parker (who knows).  Has to be the worse PF depth in the league.  We are going to be forced to play a lot of small ball unless we balance the roster some.

I actually think the opposite, the Cs only options for small ball 5 is Grant and while he can play the role I do not think he has the talent to be one of the top 8/9 guys on this team. Trading R-Will or Thompson for a bigger forward is important in that it will allow the Cs to exploit the positional size of Tatum at the 3 and Brown at the 2 and allow the Cs to run a smaller ball lineup. I would love to see the Cs trade for Kyle Anderson, start him at the 4 and run some small ball lineup with Pritchard/Fournier, Smart, Brown, Tatum and Anderson. If Anderson can not be had via trade I can see Jeff Green or Otto Porter filling that role via FA.

so who is your center if you trade Rob W, Al Horford?  You realize Rob is just as tall, and has a significant longer wing span and standing reach than Horford?

[Neurotic Guy]

I think Rob's future is painfully predictable.  He is such a pleasure to watch -- there is so much talent and energy there -- and he's proven to be a hard worker on the court (and I would guess off the court as well).  But he always an injury about to happen. 

Every time the guy is in the air I have the quick worry that something bad will happen upon landing.  I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that he'll continue to have intriguing games and even a few exciting stretches of games --- followed always, inevitably, by injury.  Eventually the bad one will happen or the stacking of injuries will take away some of his athleticism -- I really hope not, but that's what I think. 

Therefore, a trade for someone with a chance at being more reliable sounds good to me. I think it would be crazy to hope for a mid-first in return, but I'd be glad for it.  I'm not minimizing that the C's need help at the 5, but I don't see Rob being able to have a healthy season.  Feels awful to say.

[liam]

I think Rob's future is painfully predictable.  He is such a pleasure to watch -- there is so much talent and energy there -- and he's proven to be a hard worker on the court (and I would guess off the court as well).  But he always an injury about to happen. 

Every time the guy is in the air I have the quick worry that something bad will happen upon landing.  I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that he'll continue to have intriguing games and even a few exciting stretches of games --- followed always, inevitably, by injury.  Eventually the bad one will happen or the stacking of injuries will take away some of his athleticism -- I really hope not, but that's what I think. 

Therefore, a trade for someone with a chance at being more reliable sounds good to me. I think it would be crazy to hope for a mid-first in return, but I'd be glad for it.  I'm not minimizing that the C's need help at the 5, but I don't see Rob being able to have a healthy season.  Feels awful to say.

It seems kinda soon to give up on a talented big man at only 23.

[Vermont Green]

RWilliams will get $3.6M next season.  That is a fair amount.  I do see him as expendable, especially if we don't move Thompson.  We really don't need them both.  If we are able to move Thompson, then I doubt RWilliams goes anywhere.

We have 4 players right now that can only play center and one FA (Kornet) who we can sign easily if we want.  There is going to be some movement here.  It would be nice if some of these bigs could play PF also.  As it stands, only one of Horford, Thompson, RWill, and MBrown can be on the court at a time.

Our PFs are GWill (undersized) and Parker (who knows).  Has to be the worse PF depth in the league.  We are going to be forced to play a lot of small ball unless we balance the roster some.

I actually think the opposite, the Cs only options for small ball 5 is Grant and while he can play the role I do not think he has the talent to be one of the top 8/9 guys on this team. Trading R-Will or Thompson for a bigger forward is important in that it will allow the Cs to exploit the positional size of Tatum at the 3 and Brown at the 2 and allow the Cs to run a smaller ball lineup. I would love to see the Cs trade for Kyle Anderson, start him at the 4 and run some small ball lineup with Pritchard/Fournier, Smart, Brown, Tatum and Anderson. If Anderson can not be had via trade I can see Jeff Green or Otto Porter filling that role via FA.

I consider any line up that has one big, such as Horford, and then Tatum as the PF, as a small ball line up.  As someone else said, we would have good size at PG and SG with Smart and Brown but then two more wings (likely Fournier and Tatum) and a big (Horford in most cases probably).

I don't consider this type of small line up the end of the world, I just don't like the fact that we really have no option to play a traditional PF-C 2-big line up for those instances where we would want to play that way.

Now Parker may surprise and GWill can hold it down as a PF/Swing out there with Horford/RWill/MBrown in short stints but we have really limited options with the current roster.  Unless Parker comes back with more game and/or GWill grows a couple of inches, these guys won't see more than what, 12 min each?

[Neurotic Guy]

I think Rob's future is painfully predictable.  He is such a pleasure to watch -- there is so much talent and energy there -- and he's proven to be a hard worker on the court (and I would guess off the court as well).  But he always an injury about to happen. 

Every time the guy is in the air I have the quick worry that something bad will happen upon landing.  I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that he'll continue to have intriguing games and even a few exciting stretches of games --- followed always, inevitably, by injury.  Eventually the bad one will happen or the stacking of injuries will take away some of his athleticism -- I really hope not, but that's what I think. 

Therefore, a trade for someone with a chance at being more reliable sounds good to me. I think it would be crazy to hope for a mid-first in return, but I'd be glad for it.  I'm not minimizing that the C's need help at the 5, but I don't see Rob being able to have a healthy season.  Feels awful to say.

It seems kinda soon to give up on a talented big man at only 23.

Hopefully you are correct.  He deserves good things. But those legs don’t seem made for what he needs them to do.

[ETNCeltics]

The argument that we should trade him because he's injury-prone has merit, but it's also more common than it used to be. Lots of players miss lots of games now. All around the league, guys are missing huge chunks of games every year. Look at Thompson, he's been no more reliable than TL the last few years. He's missed 29, 39, 25, and 18 games the last 4 years, and he just turned 30. 

Williams makes things happen. IMO, the whole team seems to have more energy when he's on the floor. Yes, he struggles switching on the perimeter, but so does almost every other 4 or 5 in the league. Regardless of some of comments in this thread, he has more potential to do so than any other 4/5 on the roster. He just needs to raise his basketball IQ.

I hope we keep him, unless the return for him is significant.

[tstorey_97]

32
29
52
Those are the games Robert played in each of his 3 years

3
13
3
Robert's playoff appearances.

79
66
64
Tatum's last three seasons

9
17
5
Tatum's playoff appearances
***
Robert is really good and not that expensive. Trading him for a pick doesn't seem to make sense as the Celtics are getting closer to needing to set up a title roster. Trading him for a pick that they will then trade for a major piece makes sense.

Issue, for what he could potentially do in a (low injury) 60 appearance season? The Celtics can't get enough back for him...he's way to valuable. I know he won't play 35 mpg, but 3 blocks + 3 assists + 73% from the field might be worth the gamble of "one more year."

I think he stays, unless some other GM has to have a kid who has missed 100 games in three years.

[GreenlyGreeny]

If we could get a first-round pick for him, or a cheap veteran role player who solidifies our big men depth with someone who does not injure easily and can play the 4 or 5 the next 2-3 years, you gotta do it. Timelord is injured way too often and his cost-controlled contract is almost up. This draft is loaded and we desperately need veteran depth.

[Muzzy66]

The guy is untrustworthy and is a walking injury. Cs should sell high on this guy. Has all the talent in the world but he just can’t stay healthy.

 Same things were said about Embiid

Embiid's health still deeply concerns me, and I still wouldn't want him

[gouki88]

At this point, what are we going to get back for him? Trading him just for the sake of trading him seems unlikely.

Also, this rumor’s source:

The forum needs more Bob's Burgers references.

To be honest, I would get exploring trade options for him. He's incredibly unreliable due to his durability. If we can get someone to overpay on him I'd be very tempted. I think a lot would depend on how much money he thinks he deserves on his next deal. Can't afford to pay someone as injury-prone as him big money