Suspension:Grant Williams has been suspended idefinitely his not playing for Dallas Mavericks till. See more….
Karalis: It won’t be easy financially, but the Celtics should keep Grant Williams
The Celtics kicked off their offseason with a bit of a shocker, trading Marcus Smart away for Kristaps Porzingis. The move, according to Stevens, was part of a necessary rebalancing of the roster for Boston. But there are still questions about how the roster will work.
A lot of that has been discussed already, but there’s more to the equation, including how the Celtics bench will shake out. Right now, here’s a quick look at the depth chart:
Guards: Derrick White, Malcolm Brogdon, Payton Pritchard
Wings: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Sam Hauser, Justin Champagnie
Bigs: Kristaps Porzingis, Robert Williams, Al Horford, Luke Kornet
That’s 11 players currently under contract. They need to add three more before the season begins.
At this point, seven of the guys under contract (White, Brogdon, Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, Williams, Horford) are guaranteed rotation players. Two more (Pritchard, Hauser) have the chance to join the rotation in some capacity.
They can use a couple of those open spots for veteran minimum guys with specific skill sets, like spot-up shooters, just in case.
And the final spot should go to Grant Williams.
This is not going to be an easy thing for Boston to do, and it might just be a temporary fix, but after weighing the pros and cons, I still think Williams returning to Boston is the best option for this upcoming season.
The most obvious reason to keep him is that he’s a good basketball player. Teams are lining up to make an offer to him, and he’ll be worth somewhere around $15 million a year for a reason. At his best, he’s able to hit shots, drive close-outs, and make the right read on offense. Defensively, his versatility allows him to muscle up against bigs but stay in front of wings.
He’s obviously going to be expensive, especially when added to the rest of the group, but it will also be damn near impossible for Boston to find everything Williams does for the team with a $5 million taxpayer mid-level exception — which, by the way, hard caps Boston at the second apron. Any team that uses the taxpayer MLE can’t go over the second apron at all for any reason.
And I’m not trying to minimize the cost. Everyone knows getting Williams to fit under the second apron, or super-tax line, is going to be tough, including Williams himself who admitted the new CBA “changes the numbers” in this negotiation.
The 11 guys Boston has under contract at the moment, not including Williams, total up to a payroll of $173.2 million dollars. The second apron is set at just under $182.8 million for this upcoming season. When you add in cap charges for not having the full 14-man roster set yet, Boston is $7.5 million away from the second apron.
That means signing Grant Williams to a four-year deal with an average annual value of about $15 million would give him about $13.5 million this season. Boston would be $6 million over the second apron with two more players left to sign.
Obviously, that’s not an ideal place to be. If Boston stays over the second apron, they’ll lose their taxpayer MLE. Other, harsher restrictions, like having to match salaries almost exactly or being unable to aggregate two or more outgoing players in a trade, take effect next season.
Their ability to adjust would be limited, for sure. But keeping Williams also allows them to be able to adjust over the course of the season. And because the toughest penalties are a year away, this is the one chance to go all the way in before having to step back a year from now.
