Has Grant Williams outpriced the Celtics with his play?
BOSTON (BVM) – The Boston Celtics have emerged as one of the NBA’s best teams in 2022 after a Finals appearance last summer. Jayson Tatum’s MVP-caliber play has stolen much of the fanfare, but the remainder of the lineup has been a well-oiled machine.
In a new system implemented by interim head coach Joe Mazzulla that emphasizes spacing, no one has benefited more than power forward Grant Williams. The 24-year-old has had a career season and has served as an underrated catalyst for Boston’s offense.
Williams’ role
Due to various injuries throughout the year to Al Horford and Robert Williams, Grant Williams has been able to get a decent amount of starts this year.
He’s averaged 28.7 minutes with 9.3 points. But the trait that he has continued to improve on is his shooting ability.
On 3.7 attempts per game this year, Williams is shooting at a 47% clip from deep. He also has a league–leading 72% true shooting percentage.
Despite being a great collegiate player at Tennessee, there were many questions surrounding his NBA future when he declared for the draft.
In Knoxville, Williams was not a shooter.
Over the course of his college career, he attempted just 103 three-pointers, making 29%. Last season alone, Williams took more than double that number while hitting 41% of them.
At 6-foot-6, 236 pounds, he can no longer bully his way into the paint like he did in the SEC, but he has completely revamped his style of play, becoming a weapon in the modern game.
Williams’ contract situation
After an effort from the Celtics’ front office to lock up Williams this past offseason, nothing was agreed upon and now he will be a restricted free agent this summer.
And for Williams, that decision should get him a lot more money.
Boston will be able to offer him a 6.2 million dollar qualifying offer according to Spotrac, which would be just under a 2 million dollar raise. But the likely scenario is that Williams’ will decline that, and accept a contract for more money.
Since he is restricted, Boston will have the opportunity to match any offer sheet Williams accepts. Thankfully for the Celtics, they will have Horford’s 26.5 million dollars coming off the books.
Even though Horford is playing well, he is 36 years old and his asking price should be significantly lower than what Williams will get. The best case scenario for Boston would be to lock up both big men for the sum of what Horford’s last deal was.
The only concern should be if a team is willing to blow them out of the water with a large contract offer for Williams.
For a win–now team, the results of this season could determine if they want to pay whatever is necessary to keep him around or if they’d prefer to have more flexibility to build around Tatum.
