If you had to win an NBA game....

[todd_days_41]

I raised the question recently.... is RWII our most essential player? The thought stems from this:

Williams has become arguably the most intimidating defender in the NBA (Rudy Gobert would object, prolly Giannis too, but bear with me). He anchors what has been the NBA's best defense of late. Opposing teams fear him, and adjust their offense when he's on the floor.

Tatum and Brown are excellent players, yet to an extent are switchable if not interchangeable. Both wings. Both volume scorers capable of putting up 35 in any given night, even when defensive focus on them.

So if you needed a win, would you rather have Williams than one of those two? Would you forego the defense of Williams to have both Brown and Tatum, even though only one of them can score at a time?

Forget stats and rankings. When it comes to actually winning, personally, I challenge the notion that Rob's a tier below our "two stars".

Interested to see how folks vote.

[LilRip]

Timelord is great but he’s far from our most essential player. He’s an impactful player but also situational. Rob isn’t just a tier below our stars. He’s a few tiers below them. If anything, I’d say Brown (a fringe all star) is a tier below Tatum (perennial all star).

In equivalence, if TL was a guard he’d be like Marcus Smart. If he was a wing, he’d be like Harrison Barnes or Duncan Robinson. These guys are high impact role players, can play significant roles on winning teams, and in the moment, are good enough to look like the most dangerous player on the floor.

[todd_days_41]

Timelord is great but he’s far from our most essential player. He’s an impactful player but also situational. Rob isn’t just a tier below our stars. He’s a few tiers below them. If anything, I’d say Brown (a fringe all star) is a tier below Tatum (perennial all star).

In equivalence, if TL was a guard he’d be like Marcus Smart. If he was a wing, he’d be like Harrison Barnes or Duncan Robinson. These guys are high impact role players, can play significant roles on winning teams, and in the moment, are good enough to look like the most dangerous player on the floor.

I think virtually everything stated above is off, with the possible exception of Tatum's placement over Brown.

[LilRip]

Timelord is great but he’s far from our most essential player. He’s an impactful player but also situational. Rob isn’t just a tier below our stars. He’s a few tiers below them. If anything, I’d say Brown (a fringe all star) is a tier below Tatum (perennial all star).

In equivalence, if TL was a guard he’d be like Marcus Smart. If he was a wing, he’d be like Harrison Barnes or Duncan Robinson. These guys are high impact role players, can play significant roles on winning teams, and in the moment, are good enough to look like the most dangerous player on the floor.

I think virtually everything stated above is off, with the possible exception of Tatum's placement over Brown.

Simply put, if Rob Williams is one of the best players on your team, you aren’t getting very far. I don’t see how any team will pick TL before Brown or Tatum.

[Moranis]

Game? No way you take Timelord because his offense is just so bad.  Need a stop, sure Timelord and one of the wings is the way to go. 

[Atzar]

In order for a limited offensive player like Rob Williams to be considered for this exercise, I feel like he'd need to be an elite defensive player - up there near Gobert.  That's the kind of impact a defensive-minded player would need to have for me to pick them over a competent #2/#3ish offensive engine like Jaylen.  Rob is good defensively - sometimes really good - but he's not that. 

[Celtics4ever]

The answer is Larry Joe  Bird.....  JK

I voted Tatum and Brown, who would not.

[nickagneta]

Timelord's amazing defense and 10 points a game are simply not enough to overcome Jaylen's 25 points and great defense.

Timelord's near league best defense down low and ability to, at many times, switch effectively outside is not good enough to overcome a 15 point offensive differential to Jaylen on top of Brown's great perimeter defense and ability shut down players 1-4 in a one on one setting.

As Moranis said....one play you take Timelord, for a game or series or season, you take Jaylen. You take Jayson in all cases.

[liam]

The answer is Larry Joe  Bird.....  JK

I voted Tatum and Brown, who would not.

The answer is always Larry Joe  Bird! The best player I ever saw.

[Roy H.]

They’re all important to making our team go.  For one game, though, I’d hope that Horford / Theis could hold the fort down.

I think Smart cs. Timelord is more interesting, particularly now that we have White.

[Csfan1984]

I might go TL if either Tatum or Brown were better handing the designed defenses played against them. Teams can blitz either guy and neutralize one almost every time down. Kind of need both right now to limit the effect and put defense into a disadvantage.

[CelticsWhat35]

I picked Tatum and Brown, but I think some of us might be overstating how bad TL is on offense.  Granted, he has no post-game or mid-range shot to speak of, but he’s still very productive on the offensive end with his passing, pick and roll abilities and cleaning up the offensive boards.  There are plenty of big men in this league that shoot the ball better than TL but don’t have the overall impact he does on that end.

[keevsnick]

Always, always, always go with the perimeter guys unless you're talking about an elite all-NBA center.

[Vermont Green]

This is my team player importance/impact ranking (total opinion of course)

Tatum
Brown
Smart
RWill
White
Horford
GWill
Pritchard
Theis (likely to move up once he reacclimates)
Nesmith
Hauser
Kornet
Thomas
Lucky

Did I miss anyone?  I am sure there will be debate particularly regarding Smart and RWill, but I view Smart as clearly more impactful.

[Celtics2021]

This is my team player importance/impact ranking (total opinion of course)

Tatum
Brown
Smart
RWill
White
Horford
GWill
Pritchard
Theis (likely to move up once he reacclimates)
Nesmith
Hauser
Thompson
Lucky

Did I miss anyone?  I am sure there will be debate particularly regarding Smart and RWill, but I view Smart as clearly more impactful.

I generally agree with this.  But who’s Thompson?  Did you mean Brodric Thomas?  Or did you pop Tristan Thompson as last year’s big who’s come back for round 2, instead of Luke Kornet?  Either go in the bottom spot.