The Time Lord strikes again
Robert Williams tore the MCL in his left knee on March 27th. That is one week away from being 6 months to the day where we found out he is now having surgery. The palpable irony of his nickname is just too good.
Lets get a few points out of the way.
The injury is expected to keep him out 4 - 6 weeks. That is not going end the Celtics season. He will miss training camp. He’ll most likely miss a few weeks to start the season because he is who he is and the Celtics are who they are with injuries.
This was a “clean up” operation. The recovery time should be minimal. AKA we should get prime Time Lord before Thanksgiving
Finally, I was on board with him playing through the injury in the playoffs. Docs told him it was just pain management and he couldn’t injure it any more. Get your ass out there. I also gained a ton of respect for him in the toughness department where he was lacking pretty severely if we’re being honest. As did his coach.
All that being said. Could you not have cleaned that shit up in July? August? Beginning of September? It feels like this was the first time he tested the knee in a basketball setting since the finals. And oops wouldn’t ya know it. Doesn’t feel great. Would that surprise anyone? Weather it be Time Lord’s reputation or the Celtics shitty history with injury management. (Remember Kemba’s knee that “just needed rest” before the bubble. Ya, that guy is out of the league).
You have to raise the question on the management of this. The training staff or management should have put a deadline to test the knee or even schedule the bloody procedure after the finals. The kid said they were draining the knee constantly and he eventually just said “fuck it”. Doesn’t sound like a “self medicate” situation. ( I don’t know if Time Lord is a weed guy. I just assume.)
“After returning from meniscus surgery last season, Williams was frequently having fluid drained from his knee. In the Finals, he told Yahoo Sports he decided to stop draining the fluid build-up, with the Celtics medical team saying it would not risk worsening the knee and was solely a matter of pain tolerance.” SOURCE
The real side affect to this Lord of Time decision is the trickle down on the line up. With Gallo out for the year your already thin front court is now desperately hanging on to an impossible leap from Luke Kornet. That means more minutes for 36 year old Al Horford. Or more court time for perfectly suited role man and Jack Simone’s walking wet dream, Grant Williams. It also means more minutes for Tatum at the 4 and Jaylen at the 3. Those are harder minutes and depletes the strength of the Celtics which is their massive defensive line ups.
Brad Stevens should have added more to the front court before this injury and now he has no choice. Even if Time Lord is back in record time and looks like the DOPY candidate again his injury history is too big of a risk to rely on him. Hence, why I have floated he should be the center piece to a Celtics blockbuster trade. We’ll save that talk for later. For now keep your eyes on the clock Time Lord.
