Grant Williams' Tenure In Boston Is Over After Brad Stevens Trades Him To The Mavericks As Part Of A 3 Team Sign And Trade

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Annnd there it is! Once all the cap space free agent deals happened over the last few days, that meant it was time for the RFA class. We learned what was happening with Miles Bridges taking his qualifying offer, then today we learned that the Mavs threw an offer sheet at Matisse Thybulle, and yet we still hadn't heard about Grant.

Until now. 

The Mavs being where Grant ended up isn't all that surprising since they were rumored of having interest for the last few weeks, and seeing as how they didn't have a ton of room to work with, the most likely path was always going to be a S&T. It's not like they had the cap space to absorb Grant into. The question was more, what would Brad get back?

We'll talk through that in a second. First, let's talk about the 4/53M number. That's not totally outrageous, it's similar to the extension amount that Grant turned down in the Fall, so why didn't Brad match? For starters, the CBA rules and the 2nd apron penalties did not exist when Grant was offered his early extension. If it did, who knows if they even try and extend him in the first place. Then there's the whole trading for Porzingis and his $36M (and $60M extension) thing. At that point it's fair to wonder how much Grant was even going to play, and if it makes sense to now go over that 2nd apron just to keep him.

Brad clearly told us the answer to that is no. I'm sure there are players and situations that the Celts will be willing to go over that 2nd apron for, but that is apparently not Grant. At least this way the Celts didn't lose him for nothing, and now have 2 more 2nd round picks to add to their collection, which I imagine will somehow be packaged for something. They now have 9 future 2nd round picks and I cannot imagine they are all staying as well as a fairly small TPE (this will probably expire and not be used).

Whether you think Grant stinks or not, there are a few things this now means for the Celts roster. They've lost a guy who has turned himself into a consistent elite 3PT shooter and someone who is somewhat versatile defensively. At the very least, he was strong as hell and a guy that was pretty useful for the Giannis' and Embiid's of the world.

At the same time, there was real regression with Grant defensively this past season, especially when it came to individual defense. He was getting COOKED all postseason, ranking in just the 1st percentile in isolation defense. That's….very bad. With the addition of Porzingis (and more Hauser minutes potentially), that does sort of address the shooting part. I also imagine this means more minutes for Tatum at the 4, so I can understand both the basketball side and the money side for not matching 4/53M. I will say there is a little bit of nervousness about a Porzingis/Rob/Al frontcourt healthwise with only Luke Kornet, Oshae Brissett, and a rookie as the only big men depth as of now, which means there certainly should be more to come.

The fun part is now wondering what else could Brad be up to. It seems a little insane to think that given where the Celts are in terms of contention, they're willing to roll into the season with the roster as it stands now. It feels more like this was a move that helped them financially while getting something for the asset and accumulating pieces that can be used for additional moves. Let's not forget what Brad said like two weeks ago

Now that the Grant box is checked, all the attention now moves to the Jaylen extension. I would think there was probably an order of operations with this stuff, so with this out of the way I wonder when we'll hear about Jaylen. Granted he doesn't have to sign shit until the start of next season so there's plenty of time for more dominos to fall, but it's clearly the biggest thing left on Brad's to do list.

For where Grant was drafted, I'd say he more than lived up to what was expected of him. He wasn't perfect, his second year was an absolute disaster, but he certainly had his moments

but as it turned out, he was a victim of the very CBA that he helped negotiate. That's tough. At the same time, being sent to play next to Luka isn't the worst thing in the world, and he's also getting $53M so something tells me Grant will be fine. 

Essentially, trading for Porzingis cost this team Marcus Smart and Grant Williams, and only time will tell if they are now better than they were before. It's way too early in the summer to make that sort of declaration, we need to see the entire plan. If the team decided to move on from both, it's clear there's a plan in place. What that is, is anyone's guess.