Robert Williams' Latest Injury and What It Means Going Forward For The Celtics

Robert Williams' left knee injury requires surgery and will keep him out at least a month, which reinforces the belief that he's a talented, injury-riddled big man whose potential won't be reached.

NBA training camp is just days away from starting, with fullcourtpress.bulletin.com ready to start running at full throttle for what should be another amazingly awesome NBA season. There will be stories published at least twice a week, as well as power rankings, videos, additional content, etc. for our premium members brought to you by veteran sports journalist A. Sherrod Blakely.

If you like reading Full Court Press, Please subscribe and leave your thoughts, ideas, etc. in the comments section. And if you want to get your friends on the Full Court Press team, forward away. You ️can also follow A. Sherrod Blakely on Facebook and Instagram, at @sherrodblakely.

**********************************************

Robert Williams III is not the Boston Celtics' best player. But when you look at their dreams of another deep playoff run, it's hard to imagine that happening without him being healthy.

Training camp hasn't started and Williams is already out with an injury.

Williams will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee which will keep the All-NBA Defensive Second Team big man out 4-6 weeks. This is the same knee Williams had surgery on in March.

He bounced back ahead of schedule, but don't count on that this time around.

In the grand scheme of things, Williams missing a couple of weeks to start the season won't make or break the Boston Celtics' season.

But it adds another degree of difficulty to Boston getting off to a good start, something players and coaches have talked about wanting to do.

The Celtics came within two wins of an NBA title last season despite finishing the first half of the season with a paltry 20-21 record.

It's understandable why they feel a better start would have been enough to have an even better finish and more importantly, bring the franchise's 18th title to Boston.

None of that matters now, not with Boston having to find a way to navigate the early portion of the season without their most athletic big man.

No matter how much the Celtics will talk up the benefits of Al Horford's veteran savvy and Grant Williams' growth and even finding minutes for Luke Kornet, there will be a noticeable void left with Williams being out.

Boston went from being a bad team to one of the league's true bad-ass squads in large part when Williams began to patrol the paint rather than an individual player defensively, a move that provided just the spark Boston needed to turn around their fortunes.

With him out at least the first month of the season, the Celtics will have to give serious thought to using its final roster spot for a big man who more likely than not, will be a veteran.

DeMarcus Cousins and Dwight Howard are both available, and may very well be seen as short-time additions who can just keep the void left by Williams' injury from widening.

If Boston were to add one of them to the mix, Howard and his penchant as a defender would make more sense as a pinch-hitting fill-in for Williams.

Boston could also look to address his early-season absence by leaning on former first-round pick Mfiondu Kabengele who was signed this summer to a two-way contract.

If the Celtics are convinced Williams' injury is a short-time issue, this would make the most sense.

Still, as good as the 6-foot-10 Kabengele was this summer...he ain't Robert Williams III.

And that's why Williams' injury is a much bigger deal that should not be made light of.

It feeds the narrative that Williams is a talented, injury-prone big man who can't stay healthy long enough to reach his full or near-full potential.

And Williams' injury also only adds to the already-thin frontline of the Celtics following Danilo Gallinari suffering a torn ACL injury in his left knee earlier this month.

So on the eve of camp, Boston goes into it without their most versatile defender around the paint, as well as their best shooting big man (Gallinari).

Nobody said getting back to where they were last season was going to be easy.

But this injury only makes the challenge of getting off to a good start all that more daunting.