Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
Stevens has been so hands-on, according to Williams, he did a bike workout with the rookie on Wednesday.
“He’s one of the most hands on coaches I’ve ever worked with,” Williams said. “He actually conditioned with me on a bike today. That’s kind of funny. But he’s always hands on. Ask him directly. If you have a question for him, his office is always open as far as basketball and off the court.”
Mass Live — Boston Celtics’ Robert Williams dealing with knee tendinitis, not cleared for 5-on-5
Robert Williams has spent much of the summer in Boston, and spoke to the media at a community event yesterday. All of the right things were said about Williams’ commitment to improvement in the wake of a few goofy slip-ups to start his NBA career.
But while all of the Williams updates are great, the real gem here is that Brad Stevens is making sure to run into Williams all over the Celtics’ practice facility.
Just imagine Williams hopping onto a stationary bike as part of rehabbing his knee tendinitis. He probably has headphones in, minding his own business, when all of a sudden he looks to his left and sees a smiling Brad Stevens on the bike next to him — gray cotton t-shirt tucked into quad-high mesh shorts, New Balance sneakers with shin-high socks pounding the pedals.
Later that day, Williams decides to do some pool running. He hops into the pool, pokes his head above water, and who’s getting into the lane next to him? It’s Brad. Bathing cap on, body still a bit wet from the pre-pool shower (Brad follows every rule). Williams shakes his head, “c’mon coach, I got this, give me a little space!”
Bob has put in a hard day’s work at the facility, so he decides to catch a movie that night. He grabs a seat middle-back of the theater, the lights dim, he looks over to the right… You guessed it. It’s Brad again. He’s got a box of raisinets and also snuck in some celery stalks and carrot sticks and he’s ready for the feature presentation.
In all seriousness, the fact that Williams is already in awe of how involved of a coach Stevens is lines up with what we’ve often heard Brad say is his ultimate recruiting pitch. He wants to let all of his guys know that he cares about them and then hopefully they’ll want to stick around. Williams is probably the 14th or 15th guy on this team this year, but Brad is going to treat him like guy number one. Whether it’s on the court, on the bike, or in a hypothetical movie theater.
Related links:
Mass Live — Robert Williams is learning to ‘live up’ to being a pro
NBCBoston — Robert Williams on mend both physically and image-wise
On page 2, Kevin Pelton gives the Cs a C
Having signed Al Horford and Gordon Hayward in free agency the previous two seasons, the Celtics largely sat this summer out, re-signing Aron Baynes and Jabari Bird, and bringing Brad Wanamaker back from Europe to replace Shane Larkin.
Boston’s most meaningful long-term move was surely drafting Robert Williams, who slipped on draft night and could proves a steal if he can manage to avoid oversleeping
ESPN (Insider) — NBA grades: The best and worst moves in the East
Whatever… Given the way Pelton grades an off-season I guess it makes sense that the Cs would get an average grade, as there were no “major” moves. I’d take the complete picture into consideration, though, and given what the Celtics hope to achieve this year, I think they deserve a B+.
The Cs have championship aspirations, and so locking up Marcus Smart and re-signing Aron Baynes were key moves to ensure the depth and the chemistry of this team remain strengths. I’m not sure what else the team could have done to position itself better going into the 18-19 season.
I’m so over off-season grades and rankings. The Celtics play a pre-season game in 22 days. That can’t come soon enough.
The rest of the links:
NBCSports Boston — What does Aron Baynes do for an encore?
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