Getty Grant Williams, Boston Celtics
Grant Williams’ impending contract extension talks are a potential roadblock that is often overlooked by Boston Celtics fans.
Here we have a young, versatile forward who is coming off the best season of his young career and is entering the final year of his rookie scale contract. As such, Williams will shortly become eligible to sign a contract extension – assuming both he and the Celtics can reach an agreement on a new deal.
Of course, whenever there is a potential contract discussion, there is always the concern that things won’t go as planned, and the team is left with a disgruntled player on their hands. Perhaps that’s why teams often look to trade a player as they enter the final year of their contract.
According to an Eastern Conference GM, who spoke to Heavy.com under the condition of anonymity, there is a widespread belief that both Williams and the Celtics want to get an extension in place in the coming weeks and that neither party is interested in finding Williams a new home around the league.
“They do not want to move Williams. He’s the right role player for that group, he fits what they do, he has some areas where he can get better and he’s going to get better. In the end, they’ll pay him, there will be a fair deal there. He might want to take a short deal, a three-year deal with an option on that third year so that if he does blow up and becomes Draymond Green Part 2, he can get paid. Three years in the range of $33-40 million, that’s good for both sides. There are players who are valuable to their team but might not be as valuable if they go somewhere else and he is that kind of guy. It wouldn’t do them much good to trade him,” The GM told Heavy’s, Sean Deveney.
Williams, who was the 22nd selection in the 2019 NBA Draft, will earn $4.3 million for the upcoming season, and can reasonably expect to triple that salary moving forward.
Williams Credits Off-Season Improvements
Entering last season, there were questions about where Grant Williams would fit within the Celtics rotation, as he had struggled during the 2020-21 season, especially on the defensive side of the floor.
However, Williams had clearly been putting in the work during the off-season, as he got off to a solid start, and quickly emerged as one of the better corner three-point shooters in the NBA – something he sustained throughout the season.
“I would say it’s 70/30 – Improvement side is 70, I feel like the amount of effort I put into making shots last summer, and the defensive intensity I’ve grown with…That allowed me to fulfill a role that was needed. And the opportunity arose,” Williams said when discussing his growth on a July 20 podcast with the Miami Heat’s Duncan Robinson.
Williams ended last season with averages of 7.8 points, three rebounds, and one assist per game while shooting 47.5% from the field and 41.1% from the perimeter.
Williams Clowns Tatum
During the off-season, players tend to split their time between developing their bodies and working on their game. On August 2, Boston’s star player, Jayson Tatum was tagged in some photographs of him getting some strength and conditioning work in – with one picture showing him using 75-pound dumbbells, and Williams was quick to let Tatum know that he was using light weights.
Of course, Tatum didn’t waste no time in responding to the talkative forward, as he replied with, “D*** can I get a warm-up set in?,” which is just another sign of the chemistry this Celtics team has built over the last 12 months.
While Williams might believe he’s the stronger athlete, there’s no doubt that he has a long way to go if he wants to begin matching Tatum’s on-court impact, but that shouldn’t stop Brad Stevens from reaching out with a contract offer in the coming weeks.