Rockets, Blazers recently conducted trade talks centered on Robert Williams III

100% hard no to Grant. That's an overrated no-defense chucker on a bad contract who plays our deepest positions, SF/PF. And giving up Reed for it too?

 

I've never understood the fascination with Grant. Dame did him a solid waiting until after he got paid to ask out.

 

Capela maybe Available

Rocket River

 

As a backup I think he is fine, but the issue is we don't have as many draft assets as people love to think we do, and I would rather give those sort of small ballish minutes to Jabari at the 5. I think Jabari is better, and I like the Sengun, Adams, Jabari combinations. Alot of versatility there. So IMO we would kind of be wasting a pick if they are foolish enough to give away one of our first rounders for him just to be a 3rd string center, or play the backup 4 I guess...

 

When’s the las time we had a lob threat big? Capela? Alpi, Jock and Adams have to be the least athletic big rotation in the league.

 

Just an excellent shooter at good volume who has looked passable defensively anytime he's not been on a tanking team. Massive wingspan, good shotblocker for his size. You assume when a vet is on a tanking team he's taking way more shots than he should so you expect with fewer shots his consistency and efficiency could improve too. You consider the coach as a fit too of course. There are players who can produce under strong leadership but not otherwise. Feel like his contract would be reasonable if healthy and his salary is declining in cap % each year.

Has been injury prone for 4 years though so I think the window is closed until he puts together a couple of 70+ game back to back seasons. Wouldn't risk much if anything for him right now unless it came super cheap.

 

Yes, do it do it.

Grant has only been a chucker on Blazers.....which is a totally selfish young give me mine team.
(Sharpe, Scoot, Simmons, Kris Murray never pass).
Grant is lucky to touch the ball. He would be our 3rd offensive option immediately behind
or with Jalen Green and Sengun as he always scores well in PnR, Hand Offs, Spot ups, transition.
Where Jabari never scores well in any.

Jabari can move to small ball center for more minutes.
Tari may be like Terrence Jones with mysterious nerve or blood clot issues in leg.
Dillon is not in our future long term.....has kinda hit a wall stats wise a week ago.
Cam Whitmore can spend time at SF (backup).

I know Sengun fans are always threatened by any bigs added to the team. So insecure.

 

I understand the trade proposal from an asset standpoint - you can probably extend Williams and flip him for a good extra FRP if he stays healthy and his FT% has improved. However, I don't think we should be spending $30m on backups in Adams and Williams with neither of them able to shoot. I do think Williams is better than people know/think.

Tricky situation. I'm currently knee deep in research about Williams and man, oh, man. He's much healthier than I thought he'd be right now, contract is amazing and secure for 2 years, this guy has elite starter potential. We're talking best non-shooting C in the NBA kind of potential.

What we're considering here is: what would Steven Adams' career have been like if he were super athletic for his size? That might be Robert Williams and depending on how you answer that question, you might feel like grabbing him for a first rounder right now is such a no-brainer that you're willing to work around fit issues till the summer.

 

It’s a good pickup for Landale and 2nd round picks. He familiar with the system from the Celtic days with Ime. He can rebound and play good defense at the 5. Insurance move just in case Adams gets hurt or has to do load management.

 

Franchise player good

 

If Capela's available and is willing to come off the bench, he would be ideal.

If not, I'm more than happy replacing Jock/Tate with Williams. He knows Ime's system, and he showed a lot of tools in BOS. Great defense and activity, even some quality passing. Yes he's injured a lot but we took Adams last year and that gamble paid off. We can manage rotating both at the back up 5, depending on the matchups and the schedule.

 

A shot blocking big on the floor with our defense would provide a game changing 15-20 minutes of complete shut down defense. Whether it is RWIII or someone else, this is something worth looking at.

Our big wings being able to aggressively close out on 3 point shooters with shot blocking behind them … that would be phenomenal.

 

I'm a fan of all of our players, at least the ones who are any good and not horrible people (i.e. KPJ before we got rid of him). As I have been since Hakeem's heyday.

Grant barely even qualifies as a big, he's a combo forward lol.

Literally no reason to acquire him when we have Brooks, Amen, Tari, and Jabari all needing minutes at the forward positions. All he'd be doing is robbing minutes from guys with brighter futures while sucking down all of our cap space.

 

So on doing some research on Robert Williams III from HS till now, I actually came out so surprised with what I found. I thought i'm going to look for whether he has a good motor or not. What I ended up finding out not only does he have a great motor but he is a much bigger story we should be talking about: in terms of net impact, Robert Williams is fully capable of being almost as good as Sengun (and for only $12m per year the next 2 years). I wouldn't call this a threat by the team, but I really advise Sengun to wake the F up offensively because RWIII might shock everyone but Udoka.

So let's break down his full asset value. Offense and defense, the safest way to calculate these things:

Offense

- Very good interior scorer, offensive rebounder, good at putbacks, bully ball type of plays
- Athletic lob threat - can get better PnR production out of Amen/Green
- Excellent screen-assister, in the mold of Adams
- Above average passer for a C, looks like a guy who will be a good passer later in his career maybe
- Career around 70% FT shooter. This season has made 14 of 15 FT's. Only 1 of 3 3pters.
- In general doesn't have much range or touch at this point in his career so he's mostly an interior and PnR guy
- Post game not good

Defense

So here's where Sengun might be in trouble unfortunately. Defense is half the game of course. Robert Williams III is a mind-blowing defender. If you understand how to calculate defense a C is far and away the most important position for defense on the court. A great defensive C can turn a bad defensive team into a good one. A great perimeter defender would have to be historically elite to do that. Sengun has become a passable rim protector. Williams might be top 3 in the NBA next season. Adding him to any lineup will make that lineup explode if Williams is surrounded by sufficient shooting. That's a gigantic gap. As big a gap as the average scorer in the league (like a D'Angelo Russell?) vs a top 3 scorer in the league (SGA). That's a big number in asset value or net rating whatever it is. That's no joke and it's what Stone may be investing in here.

When I say he's an athletic Steven Adams, I mean like some Spider Man like more agile 6'9 tall and 7'6 wingspan version of Steven Adams. You'll be surprised at his lateral quickness for his size too, though he's not elite at that or anything, just above average switchability for his position. He is DIFFERENT as a rim protector, we're talking about future DPOY level rim protection skills here. When I was watching his defensive plays and imagined him paired with Amen and Jabari I genuinely felt sorry for the team we were competing against in my mind. Amen-like shot-blocking and aggression. I get why they call him Timelord now. He has a sobering effect on opponents when he's on. Utterly demoralizing shotblocker.

I'll say it right here in case this is happening: a starting lineup of Williams/Jabari/Amen/Green/FVV would be one of the best defenses of the last decade or two of basketball - flat out monsters. With Tari and Brooks coming off the bench too? Are you joking? The best defense in the NBA is so far from us but with RW we could get there. That's how much I believe in his defense. Sengun and RW developing their 3pt shots would be dangerous to Jabari. This is a real big player in our rotation, not a long term bench guy. We might not be able to afford to keep him if he won't start him imo.

Things that could swing things

- Health: big one, obviously he has to prove himself. If he's cheap and on a 2 year contract for this project, I'm willing to take the risk. Even if he ends up a backup it's good value so nothing lost.
- Adams and Williams are identical. Unless Williams also needs a lot of load management, I would send Adams out in the deal. Love him but not point him being here if there are no health concerns with Williams. Younger and way more athletic Steven Adams basically.
- Williams seems like a good and smart guy in interviews.
- He has a connection with Udoka.
- His dad lives in Houston.
- The slight blip he's showing in shooting is very important. He's shooting well this season, his numbers are trending upwards neatly in his career. Maybe with all the time off he worked on his shot mechanics who knows. If this kid can be taking a low volume of 3's in 2 years, his value shoots up to near-JJJ level.
- This might be a good competitor that pushes Sengun to yet another gear, I believe it's healthy competition if it happens, and still possible they play side by side after some work on their jumpers, but then Jabari

Very tough choice but I would acquire him and think about it later. Wouldn't want any of our competitors acquiring such a great asset so dirt cheap.

 

I don't think you can play Time Lord more than bench minutes at this point, honestly--not if you want to have the slightest chance of him being available for the playoffs. Too long and storied an injury history. I agree he's really good though.

 

3 centers is a luxury. No way you give up first round picks for that. We need someone who can score.

 

Jock has been used less (fify).

IMO in rhythm he is serviceable.

 

I think u make a good point. I too like the 5 rotation with Sengun, Adams and Bari. I’m not sure how we find the minutes. But two things:

1). Steven Adams is a FA at the end of the yr, he’s coming off a major injury himself, and he’s not the rim protector Williams is. I love him, but he might not be on the team next year, he’s not playing back to backs, and certainly Williams isn’t duplicative with his skill set. Williams is probably the better defender, but obviously not the screener or offensive rebounder Adams is.

2). If Williams can stay healthy and play at a high level, we’d probably get as good if not better of a return if we decided to move him before the end of the 2025 season. Williams is undervalued if he can stay healthy and on a value contract. It’s not a bad investment relative to what we’d be giving up. Yes injury is a risk, but you are talking about one of the better defensive bigs in the league.

I’d be excited about adding Williams if it’s just Jock, Tate and 2nds. I feel like that’s not much to give up for a high-level rotation player.

 

He's the type of player the Rockets should be looking. That said....

Every salary is declining by cap percent that is not the first year of an extension as the cap is increasing faster than maximum raises. While he's better at some things than JSJ, I think they are close in overall skill already though Grant was better in the past. I'd rather just play JSJ and Tari and use the salary difference elsewhere. I think Amen, Tari, and Brooks are easily better than Grant. While I think Udoka will likely play JSJ over Whitmore due to chemistry with starters, I think Cam's last 10 games or so has been the best either of those two guys have played.

I just don't think adding a guy on a substantial salary that is declioning in skill that at best is 4th forward on the team currently is a wise move when he'll likely be making 20% of the cap after this season when he's riding the pine over the next 3 seasons.

 

Why have a lob threat If you have zero players that can throw lobs? One of our guys can’t ride roller coasters and the other is a 1/1 A2T guy.

CP3 and Harden ain’t walking through that door.