Do We Need To Have A Conversation About Grant Williams’ Struggles? | The Get Right

Do We Need To Have A Conversation About Grant Williams’ Struggles? | The Get Right

Dante xon was supposed to be a starter when Kyrie came back Jason kid made mention of that and even with that being the case Grant Williams does not start in this game Grant Williams who you signed this off season for a four-year deal I think something like 48 somewhere around there

Um making you know a nice a nice rotation player salary at somewhere around 12 a year um but he was anticipated to be your starting power forward like that is the guy that you were going to start consider consistently and he started out pretty well but you know he’s had some issues I

Know he had a little injury in there but he Lo he’s not been starting of late and even in this instance where you know you would anticipate with uh Dante exom who is kind of now the starter for now because I know Jason kid does a little

Bit of moving around his rotations he still doesn’t start do we need to have a conversation about Grant Williams and where his expectations were versus where he is delivering right now yeah it’s just a weird thing and and we talked talked about this in length before the

Show of Just where are we at with him because I’m not I don’t want to be the guy that a month two months in the season I’m like just get this guy out of town he’s not scoring this’s not doing this and there’s more to it than that

But like we talked about we brought him in hoping he could be somewhat of a defensive anchor hoping he could be somewhat of a defensive Helper and kind of be that guy to guide this team on defense really lock in be that one to mold it right there and then also a guy

That we saw and certain sport certain spurts in Boston be able to hit shots and okay he can get he can get his own shot every once in a while and he’s in a limited role and like you mentioned earlier with um before the show Joe moula didn’t really play him that much

In the finals so we’re like hey we can snoop in get this guy for a lower price yada y y he’s on the team and like uh Reggie mentioned started off looking like Klay Thompson like first two weeks like was money from I think he was shooting like 45% from three like he

Couldn’t miss playing I would say above average defense in the month of October he shot 45% from three yeah I think really with him is with Grant Williams you went and you looked at Grant Williams in Boston with the Celtics where that’s a nice rotation player defensively he’s solid and he can give

You a little something on offense yep and the idea was okay in the role that he has there which is fairly limited that’s that with an opportunity for a more increased role maybe he can step up and give you a little bit more of all of that right be a stable defensive

Foundational piece be a player that gives you a little bit more consistent offense obviously you didn’t need him to be um a big offensive piece because you have Luca donic because you have Kyrie Irving you those two are your offensive engines right but be around those guys

Knock down open shots when you get them that’s that’s all you need to do to be you know successful around Luca and you do those things and also be like a vocal leader boom you have you know existed and filled out that space that has been created for you and you have made

Yourself worth of money and and I’m and right now he he he’s not done that I don’t think of any of those things do you feel like he’s landed on him no and that’s what it was so weird because he started the season like oh my gosh this

Is a guy we got he’s going to be a great glue piece and then he just kind of fell off a cliff and then he got injured then when he came back and I think the biggest thing that you can kind of take away you can you canot believe anything

I’m saying right now I think the biggest thing you can see is when a coach plays somebody so has nothing to do about us guys are out Kyrie’s hurt Luca’s hurt the ex player filling the blank is hurt and Grant still wasn’t starting yeah man minutes will tell you about belief a lot

Of times like he’s still riding the pine when those guys are out that should be him filling in and being what we see from Tim obviously Tim Hardway is going to shoot the shoot the ball every night but you’re hoping that time that them

Two can kind of go back and forth and be your offense with the Jaden Hardy Dante X and mixed in and whatnot but it just feels like there’s not much he’s giving you on the court and I’m like maybe my eyes are deceiving me looked up the

Stats he’s fifth on out of all the bigs on offensive rebounds when it comes to defensive rebounds he is that just numbers rebound or rebounds per game offensive rebounds per game okay per game defensive rebounds he’s Luca’s better drik Livy’s better Kyrie’s better Maxi kba Tim Hardaway and then we get to

Is gonna be tough because he has such a limited amount we’ll take Clea out so Tim Kyrie obviously you want Lively I don’t know if I want Tim and KY out out rebounding our our four no and that that’s a tough thing right rebounds you’re not getting a lot of those I

Understand he’s kind of a stocky guy and maybe he needs to be in better shape possibly right in order to help him but like we were talking about this in kind of a more advanced technical way right we’ve seen teams and I can’t remember which team and I feel bad for not having

This it might have been the Lakers where you have one of those other big guys someone like Ru hachimura box him out and then allow Anthony Davis to be free to get rebounds you would anticipate that with Lively I mean Lively is solid Defender but if you give him some help

When it comes to boxing out you can come down with even more rebounds so he’s not having to fight for the box out and also get the rebound and Grant Williams hasn’t necessarily been able to deliver in that way and I don’t want to make this entirely like he hasn’t done

Anything but if we look at just okay you talk about the shooting right the the ability to knock down shots in the month of October shot 45% from three fantastic no month of November four 42% 42 and a half% great the month of December 32.8% that’s a huge drop yeah and I mean

The true shooting percentage drops in that way his usage drops in that way his off def rating drops the defensive rating goes up right like you see the ways and of course none of these are absolutes but I think the point of the M the fact of the matter is the idea was

You want him to come in and grow into a bigger role yeah and right now it’s going the other way it’s decreasing and if I was going to just give a blanket assessment of what Grant Williams is you look at him and you go all right that’s

A guy that’s you know maybe a little a little inconsistent offensively but you know sometimes can give you depending on the night he’ll be able to give you some you know ancillary scoring defensively he’s he’s a good Defender but he’s a good Defender if there’s another Defender that’s good near him

Right that’s what you saw in Boston and I’m like okay that’s a good rotation player maybe like a seventh seventh man you didn’t sign him to be a seventh man you signed him to be a foundational rotation piece in your starting lineup and so it’s still ear like we’re we’re

Not even halfway or we’re maybe getting nearing the halfway point on the season but you really need him to show himself to be more for like that rotational starting caliber player than what he’s been right now which is seventh eighth man type situation and we talked about

This the raw stats aside if if maybe if you’re not putting up the stats me and Reggie watch the games which I’m sure all of you toos watch the games you can really just see it with your own eyes that he is not making a large impact on

The game like if he was rotating and deflecting balls here and there and taking charges and setting up players all the time I would hey sometimes the stats don’t prove prove that you’re doing more than that the stats the advanced stats that me and Reggie just read out the actual eye test nothing’s

Really there that jumps off the page that this guy needs to be getting minutes which is what Jason kid sees that’s why he’s not starting that’s why he’s getting the second or third guy off the bench or like when it comes to later in the game rotation like they’re not

Trying to rotate him in and it got to the point where I’m watching the game with my friends my mom whoever Grant Williams shoots the ball and tell me if if this is true for you as well Reggie and I’m like it’s not going in like I I

Have no faith I’m like it’s not going in I’m I’m looking away I’m getting on my phone this shot is not going then when he makes it I’m like oh Lord he made one like I’m just at that point right now with what we’ve seen the last month yeah

And I mean again I I don’t need him to be a I don’t need him to be a burner necessarily but I need you to have be a credible shooter because the fact of the matter is if you’re Grant Williams playing the power forward in this league

Right now you have to be able to shoot and stretch and especially with LCA donic teams are looking for opportunities to be able to help off and you get open shots that’s thing Grant’s open if he was shooting contest shots falling away like Kyrie and Tim i’ be

Like okay he gets butt naked open licks booty butt naked open I like to say like wide open I’m like he’s got to make this yeah rim rim and the tough part about it is what that means is that defenses now are in a place where as they are

Creating their um creating their defensive plan they’re like we can afford to leave him open he’ll make one or two and that makes that makes it tougher on your stars and from the 901 he was just as inconsistent in Boston I don’t know why people are surprised that is 100%

True I’ve seen a lot of Boston fans saying that it’s one of the reasons why Joe moula um ended up you know basically benching him late in the postseason and there was smart people I know Zack low of ESPN was one of those people like why

Is why are you not using him um but the thing about is he’s 25 years old and he just turned 25 he was 24 at that point I think the idea was he’s still a young player and with the idea of the development you looked at Boston you

Said maybe that there was more players in that place where he did not have the room to grow agree 100% And so it was like all right give him an opportunity have that role and he he I mean he said as as much that it was the challenge

That he was giving himself was to be able to grow and become a bigger impact a player and right now he is not living up to that challenge now of course the time is not over he has plenty of opportunity to still try and operate

Into that but as of right now he’s not living up to that challenge that he has set for himself and that you expect from the Mavs for him to ex exhibit and so that’s been kind of tough it’s been nice that Dante exam and jerck Jones Jr have

Played really well so that they can be kind of in caliber players for you right now but man this team would be in a better place if Grant Williams was doing what you kind of hoped he would I’ll ask you this does Grant Williams struggling stick out more because of how well Jones

Jr and XM are doing on veter minimums like you see the comparison money contract what we expected then you see this like if if the contracts were switched what would we view it differently um it does stick out more and yeah the contract the framing absolutely matters with Grant Williams

But I think also if if the the contract helps make the expectation but if the expectation was what it was you still can get to this place where you’re like no he’s not living up to that agreed and so yeah it the reason why it gets even

More tough is that as Mavericks you know we’re in this place where we’re starting to look at trade rumors build and the Mavericks are looking to build this team and one thing I was talking about with you is it feels like this year is a

Figuring out year like a gap year yep I don’t think anybody anticipates them winning a championship or even really really contending for one and I think you guys understand what I mean when I say that but this is seems like a year where you’re going up and down your

Roster throughout the course of the Season you’re figuring who are the players that we can reasonably see as being a part of a championship team you’re gauging right now you’re absolutely figuring those things out and this this is why it’s super important you need to figure some of those things

Out and the ones that you feel like aren’t necessarily that you can now look at what these are these pieces Expendable can we trade these guys and and Grant Williams you were in you thought that that was going to be a piece that you knew and now that’s a

Piece that ends up being having little bit another question I was say another question mark on the bench now and you didn’t need any more of those I mean you already have like a Josh green and Jaden Hardy that through their youth you’re still trying to figure out um Dante exom

Feels like he’s giving you an answer Derrick Jones Jr feels like he’s giving you answer Tim is not like a question on how good he is but where does he fit on his team also another question mark in the way omx is a question mark in some

Ways because of his youth right and you just didn’t need more question marks and unfortunately Grant Williams has slid his way into hopefully Jason kid is the professor cuz there is questions all over the place man there’s not like a straight straight line solution and like Reggie said they’re not really

Championship window right now so you don’t have to get it all figured out right now this is a good time to figure things out while you’re kind of playing with The Kinks and figuring stuff out but um it’s not it’s not looking great for Grant other guys are stepping up but

That’s how basketball goes it’s ups and downs and it’s how you recover so we’ll see if Grant can Recover

After a solid start to the 2023-24 season, Mavs forward Grant Williams has struggled immensely. Even with Dante Exum out of the lineup, Williams is still coming off the bench. Is it time to discuss these struggles and what the team can do to fix them?

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