The Boston Celtics are a completely different team when Rob Williams isn’t available. It’s been like this for years, however the Celtics haven’t been able to land adequate reinforcements for when Williams is on the sidelines. With the evolution of Rob’s game, his presence on the court is unmatched and he is the ultimate game changer for the Celtics on both ends.

Finishing seventh in Defensive Player of the Year voting last year, Williams was looked at as arguably the best defender on the Celtics and could’ve won the award himself. Although Marcus Smart won the DPOY, it’s fair to say that Rob is the anchor of the defense and his presence is heavily missed every night on that end. 

Al Horford notices that the defense feels different without Rob and doesn’t hold back when saying the team is working on different things defensively, one of which is a matchup based switching technique that Mazzulla seems to be steering back towards after not switching much at all in the first handful of games to start the year. 

“Once Rob comes back, I feel like our defense and our principles will shift a little more. Right now, we’re working on different things and we’re just continuing to get comfortable with it.” – Al Horford

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