The four-year extension agreement reached with Robert Williams was a sensible move by the Celtics, Kevin Pelton of ESPN opines. Williams showed before he was slowed by injuries that he could be productive as the starting center after Daniel Theis was traded in March. The $54MM deal shows that the Celtics are planning to give him a much larger role than he’s had most of his young career. The contract will take him through his development years and into his prime, Pelton adds.
We have more on the Celtics:
- While extensions to Williams and Marcus Smart will eat up the team’s cap space in future years, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has maintained a level of future flexibility, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe notes. The Celtics were able to dump Kemba Walker’s contract, gain a $17.1MM trade exception in the Evan Fournier deal with the Knicks, and sign Dennis Schroder below market value. “I think we’ve been fortunate to add some guys that can really play,” Stevens said. “That’s a positive. I think we’re in a good position from a big picture standpoint.”
- The Celtics will hold a ceremony to retire Kevin Garnett’s number on March 13, the team tweets. The Hall-of-Famer spent six seasons in the organization from 2007-13, winning the 2008 championship.
- The Celtics have a rough stretch in December, including a five-game West Coast trip against many of the top teams in that conference, longtime beat reporter Mark Murphy tweets. The entire regular-season schedule can be accessed here.
Celtics definitely have done alright, but I still think they need to trade JRich. Open up minutes for Pritchard at point. They could also include Langford, Dunn, Parker or Edwards for slaty matching or to sweeten the deal.
I’d de targeting Terrance Ross, Larry Nance, Davis Bertans, Kyle Anderson, Robert Covington, Harrison Barnes or Thad Young.
Way I see it, they should start Schroder Brown Tatum Horford and Williams with Pritchard Smart Nesmith GWilliams Kanter off the bench.
If you trade out Dunn/JRich/Parker/Edwards/Langford who I haven’t included and add help another forward it would allow them to play smaller line ups more often, plus that bench would have more experience
They can cut Parker they should cut G. Williams and Edwards both players are garbage J. Rich gives you best possible 6th man other than PP they won’t trade Langford or Nesmith because they have a hard on for them because they can supposedly shoot as for Dunn and Kanter what a waste of cap space
So R. Williams gets 4yrs at 54 with only a 118 games in three seasons just imagine how much money Stevens is going to give Langford next yr at least they finally realized that NO big name free agents will come here anytime soon thanks to doofus Danny and clueless Stevens and a lot of our pathetic fans (you know the ones)
Edwards is garbage. Grant Williams is undersized. He has a nice mid range game. He’s a work in progress, a very legit nba prospect. He was better than Yabusele
Ya but his game is a dime a dozen you can find a big guy that can at least do something G. Williams can’t do sh it he looks lost and out of breath 90% of the time
Haha hater
Pritchard and Smart should lead be the backcourt in that second unit. Smart for the defence and leadership and Payton cause he’s a baller. Nesmith can take the 3 spot he’s a young 3 and D wing, and then you have Kanter at the 5 off the bench who plays terrible defence but can get your boards and buckets. Way I see it they need a 4 that can defend well and don’t really need JRich.
I think that 4 will most likely be Smart. Maybe even Jaylen at times, defensively speaking. Offensively that distinction hardly exists anymore.
I would argue they actually need the depth at wing — because I don’t see GWill Langford or Parker as dependable rotation guys. And I also don’t think they’ll be able to play Horford much as a 4.
As bad as JR was last year he’s shown he can be a starter-level perimeter player. Which on this depth chart is few and far between.
Having said that I agree that getting a Thad Young would be great for them. But I don’t think anyone on their roster outside of Smart has the value to get him. Definitely not Richardson who Dallas pretty much just have away.
Agreed.
There’s really no need to move Richardson to open up minutes for Pritchard—there will be ample opportunities for both.
But even if there was a reason, there isn’t much of a mkt for JR, hence why they got him for next to nothing. But he, like Schroeder, will be on an expiring deal, on a team with no depth, and should be motivated to revive his value this year to get one more long-term deal next summer.
Dunn also has no value. G-Will, Langford have shown very little and Parker is a lost cause.
Boston may not need a third star to win it. Danny was a top 5 GM. Philly had 6 top 5 picks and only 2 stuck. Danny had 2 and they both are all stars. He missed the Freak but he nailed the The TimeLord Smart and Pritchard. Let’s give Romeo and Nesmith this year. Edwards was a second rounder.
I don’t see anything in Langford worth him being a big contributer off the bench in the playoffs. Playoff rotations are the end-all-be-all on how valuable a player is. Not the BS, if he gives us 5 ppg and helps maintain the Jays’ load in the regular season garbage. Include him with Richardson/Dunn/Grant for a Kyle Anderson or even Marrkanen if the Bulls want something instead of him walking. Of course Marrkanen would have to compete with Rob/Horford to start but one of them off the bench drastically improves it over Langsford’s bench slot.
I’d start Marcus Smart & Denis Schroder, with Jason Tatum & Jaylen Brown and Robert “TimeLord” Williams. Then use Peyton Pritchard & Josh Richardson, with Aaron Nesmith & Romeo Langford, and Al Horford.
And mix them up a bit too. I’d like to see Smart & Josh play defense and all the guards ally-oop to TimeLord.
Bruno Fernando, Enes Kanter, Kris Dunn & Jabari Parker, Carsen Edwards, Grant Williams all need to show they deserve minutes.
Hopefully Bruno, Dunn & Jabari can all surprise & become important players.
Tazza, Richardson has yet to have an above-average PER and his defense has slipped too while away from Miami. IDKY the Celtics went after him but I don’t think he is good enough to get the players you listed.
Pritchard is the guy they should be making way for.
I find their lineup hard to work with, but what suits Tatum should be the preference to make a winning dif since his points are so variable with effort.
Tatum Brown Smart Pritchard Williams
Nesmith Shroder Richardson Horford Dunn
Langford Edwards GrantW Waters Fall (JV 2019 class lol) Parker?
They traded a talented young big in Moses Brown for J Rich. I imagine they plan on him having a large role for the team in the upcoming season. I do agree that they need to start getting their young guards more playing time though because why else did Ainge hoard all those draft picks. They need to play and develop them now
guy averages 8-6 as a 6-8” center… and gets 4 years 54 mill? That’s not a healthy contract for the celts man
React to the new NBA, will u
Oh no.. I’m 100% factoring in the crazy contracts this off season.. but this is much closer to Timofy Mozgov and Luol Deng in the crazy 2016 summer than the “new NBA”
Except that Williams is much better than Mozgov or Deng.
you said that with a straight face? you just said a severely undersized center who averages 8-6 is better than a back up center that averaged more than that most years and an all-star SF? really? lol
Yes. Williams is much better than Mozgov, and is better than Deng at the time Deng signed the contract you are talking about.
You actually have to watch basketball to know what I am talking about, not just regurgitate stats.
The fact you just mocked both Mozgov and Deng and then told me how good they both are pretty much told me all I need to know about you.
The problem with Mozgov was that his type and health was good for about one year, 2015.
Williams could be better than Deng without making allstar IMO. Anyway $13m per is not too much, with all these owners into luxury territory and the NBA not set back by much by covid.
If he’s healthy he can be a really dynamic player on defense which is probably why he got the contract.
The If Healthy is the issue though.
I dont get why KG’s number is retired by the Celts. He won one ring, played 6 years there. By standards of the greatest franchise in the NBA those are insignificant achievements. Dont get me wrong, KG was a super duper star, but he isn’t a Celtics legend by any stretch.
I dont hear Lakers planning to retire Pau’s number, even though he won two rings.
Because the celts want to retire every number by the year 2050 haha
He is a Celtics’ legend not only for what he did while there, but also for what he brought them back in the trade with the Nets, especially Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. As a Nets’ fan, I was very skeptical about doing a similarly structured trade for James Harden this past season. Fortunately, it looks like that one will go a lot better than the one with the Celts.
Probably because KG and T-Wolves aren’t best friends and will not be retiring his number anytime soon. I bet KG asked the Celtics to honor him.