Williams has clean slate with C’s
Brad Stevens has no doubt read the scouting reports and heard all the talk.
Robert Williams’ coach at Texas A&M has used polite ways to say that the big man has to work on his work ethic.
To all of this, the Celtics’ coach is keeping an open mind as regards to the athletic 6-foot10 draftee, who is scheduled to be in town for a formal introduction later in the week.
“If he comes here with the right mindset to get better every day, everything will take care of itself,” said Stevens yesterday. “You can only play five at a time, but everybody’s got to have that mindset of continuous growth. It’s hard when you’re young if there is some inconsistency in minutes, but that’s what we’re all here for, players and coaches, and we constantly talk about that.”
Stevens responded directly to criticisms of Williams’ lapses in motivation by handing the 27th overall pick a clean slate.
“I look at everybody when they get here as an opportunity to talk about what we want to do, how we want to approach every day and how they can embrace that,” the coach said. “Every one of these guys at this level has a high level of intrinsic motivation, otherwise they wouldn’t be here. And I think when you start looking at some of his numbers and his rebound percentages (17.6 percent as a freshman, 18.9 last year), I think that indicates a guy that is willing to do a lot of hard work to help his team win.
“You know, he’s a guy that can defend, he’s a guy that rolls to the rim sometimes. Depending on the game, sometimes you don’t get as many opportunities as other games, but every game he rebounds and every game he protects the rim, so we’re looking forward to having him.”
If Williams comes in committed to the improvement necessary to excel in the NBA, he could carve out a significant role even on a team that appears to be fairly tight, especially inside if the Celts can retain Aron Baynes. But there have been some who’ve reached the league and viewed that accomplishment as the finish line. Those are the first-round picks who become the cautionary tales.
Still, Stevens likes the odds in this area.
“I’ve found that generally those guys are excited to work, because they realize when they step on that court it’s a different level of challenge than they’ve ever faced,” he said.
For now, the Celtics staff is preparing its plan to challenge Williams. He will be assigned an assistant coach to work with him specifically (it’s this way with all the C’s). That pairing will do separate on-court work and video study in addition to the team’s collective sessions.
“That’s what we’re mapping out,” Stevens said of the Williams process. “I think at the end of the day you look at everyone you bring in and you create a plan for enhancement for each person. You try to help them get better at what they do best, but also manage some of the areas they don’t do as well. And then as far as seeing how it fits with everyone else, that kind of works itself out once you hit training camp. He’s a high upside player and he has some things he can get a lot better at, but he does some things physically that other guys can’t do. So being able to help him figure out where he can use those strengths best on offense and defense I think will be an easy transition for him. And then being able to improve in some of the skill areas will be a major emphasis as we start to move forward.
“We’re going to go through all of those discussions and really dive into that with people that have worked with him before.”
So even if Williams isn’t able to scratch the Celtics’ rotation this season, he will certainly be kept engaged. That’s just good basketball business.
“Always be ready,” Stevens said. “You never know. Sometimes your opportunities hit you obviously, because people are hurt or you’ve played great and earned a spot, whatever the case may be. Sometimes you just don’t know when you’re going to get thrown in. You just have to be ready, and there’s a skill and professionalism in that.”
The Celts will work with Williams on both those entities.