You may have noticed that Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams has been on something of a tear this season, putting up career numbers and breaking career highs while morphing into one of the league’s best long-distance shooters for good measure when he isn’t trying to figure out which Marvel characters his teammates are.
The Tennessee product recently got together with the hosts of the “Noble and Roosh” podcast Zak Noble and Andrew Roosh to talk about the Celtics’ surprising turnaround and his role in it, and the three spent some time discussing how Williams managed to elevate his game this season.
“Definitely a testament to the work I put in, as well as the confidence that coach (Ime Udoka) brings,” explained the former Vol.
“I feel like when you get more consistent minutes, consistent opportunity, you’re bound to produce if you put in that time and effort,” he added. “I remember my first two years, I was in and out of the rotation.
“You’re trying to find your way and establish your mark within the league.”
I remember the first year I had success. I played well, especially in the opportunity that I had,” Williams continued. “The second year was more up and down even though I shot the ball decently well at 37 or whatever percent.”
“It’s one of those things where it still wasn’t that much volume or opportunity. This is probably the first year I have been able to have consistent playing time, consistent opportunity to see some reps, so you’re just trying to make the best with what you are given. That offseason programming, whether it was my shooting, working on the 3-point ability as well as just playmaking if they take me off of the line, I feel like that’s been huge for my offensive progression this year.”
“It’s just a matter of just trying to continue to get better and work on the things that I’ll be known to be good at throughout the course of my career,” he finished.
Hopefully, Williams’ younger teammates Aaron Nesmith and Payton Pritchard get similar opportunities to work on their game and follow the model he trailblazed over the past few seasons with the Celtics.
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Because the results so far have been impressive, helping to push Boston to the brink of contention or even comfortably among the teams likely to end up in the NBA Finals this season.
As one of the Charlotte native’s teammates would say, faith, consistency, and hard work pays off.
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!
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