07 Oct
Robert Williams Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: F-C
Born: 10/17/97
Height: 6-8 / 2.03
Weight:237 lbs. / 107.5 kg.
Salary: $2,029,920
Born: 10/17/97
Height: 6-8 / 2.03
Weight:237 lbs. / 107.5 kg.
Salary: $2,029,920
If Hayward returns, Boston could play its five best players — Walker, Smart, Brown, Hayward, Tatum — in a centerless alignment that might help on the other end too. Alternatively, Robert Williams III, whom Stevens benched in Game 2, could lurk as a lob threat behind the zone. If Miami unleashes three-quarter pressure as a prelude to its zone, Boston can try to spring Walker with picks at half-court — giving him a runway to bust the zone before Miami locks it in. (The Celtics tried this a few times.)
The Celtics have allowed 103.8 points per 100 possessions (98th percentile) when Williams played the five, per Cleaning the Glass. Opponents shot just 34.2 percent (96th percentile) from midrange and 31.6 percent (93rd percentile) from 3-point range during these minutes. Overall, Boston’s defense forced a turnover on 16.6 percent of possessions (90th percentile) with Williams as their big man. Compare that to 14.0 percent (39th percentile) with Kanter playing the position and you can see the stark difference.
Robert Williams and his unique nickname have entered the mainstream thanks in large part to the center’s play for the Celtics in the NBA bubble. Of course, Celtics fans are quite familiar with “Time Lord,” which was born in the bizarre land of “Weird Celtics Twitter.” But that nickname may soon earn Williams a little extra cheddar in way of an endorsement deal with a watch company. In a pregame interview Tuesday with NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin ahead of Boston’s Game 2 matchup with the Toronto Raptors, Williams hinted that his moniker could soon grace the back of a fancy timepiece. “They’ve reached out, they’ve reached out,” Williams said after Chin asked him about a deal with Tissot, one of the NBA’s official sponsors. “It may or may not be in the works. They’ve reached out.”
Robert Williams has one of the more unique nicknames in the NBA. The “Timelord” has grown in popularity, making it from the weird corners of Boston Celtics Twitter to the local broadcasts and, thanks in large part to Doris Burke, onto the national broadcasts of Celtics games. In a pregame interview with Abby Chin on NBC Sports Boston, Williams was asked about the nickname taking off, but he still didn’t seem too enthused about it. “I don’t think it’s going to stop so I’m stuck with it,” he said.
Asked if his agent was working on any deals with watch makers like Tissot (an official NBA sponsor), Williams said, “they’ve reached out, they’ve reached out. It may or may not be in the works, they’ve reached out.” Timex took notice of Williams’ nickname right away. And while Williams made it sound like Tissot was the brand that reached out, it could be any timepiece maker (or all of them… one for each dimension in which Williams lives).
Tom Westerholm: Rob Williams said he was worried about missing his windmill dunk: “I didn’t want to come out of the game.” He knew Brad would pull him if he missed. That didn’t dissuade him though.
