The Boston Celtics have until June 29 to give Grant Williams their qualifying offer of $8.4 million, which he’ll likely decline to test out restricted free agency in hopes of being offered a larger deal that’ll force Boston to make a decision on matching or allowing Grant to walk away.

In 2021-22, Grant proved himself by helping propel the Celtics to the NBA Finals as an elite two-way player in the league. We’ve seen Grant hit the big shots and defend the best players when it matters most in the biggest moments during his four years in Boston. 

The Celtics dedicated time into developing Grant to the player they need him to be and have prepared him for it. It would be silly not to match a restricted free agent offer sheet and retain a core player who can do everything you need from him.

Grant has averaged 6.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game in his four year career with Boston, holding shooting splits of 45/38/77 in that time. He’s the truest version of homegrown talent that the Celtics have after the Jays.

The Celtics have exactly seven days after the NBA Draft to make a decision on Grant’s qualifying offer but it’s worth mentioning that there have reportedly been teams interested in Grant with much larger cap spaces than Boston.

Grant has been almost invaluable to the Celtics throughout his career. He’s always had a role with Brad Stevens and thrived in it last season under Ime Udoka, it was shocking to see him out of the rotation at times in the regular season but even more so in the playoffs, which forced Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to talk with Joe Mazzulla about it, per Jay King and Jared Weiss of The Athletic.

“The coaching staff believed in Hauser’s offensive production and felt that because opponents were going out of their way to target him and abandon their own offense, his ability to hold up decently in isolation made him impactful. Mazzulla also wanted to get Hauser more experience to prepare him for the playoffs, believing Williams would be ready to go if his number was called. But the team’s veterans believed Williams would be crucial in the playoffs, so Tatum and Brown met with Mazzulla in early March to implore him to put Williams back into the rotation.”

With the new CBA, it’s going to be challenging for the Celtics to retain their core group of players after offering Brown a supermax this summer and again with Tatum next summer.

John Karalis of the Locked on Celtics podcast was joined by Keith Smith of Spotrac to discuss the new CBA and how the Celtics can maneuver their roster with it. They both suggest that Boston will match an offer sheet Grant receives or even re-sign him for around $20-22 million because that’ll be an easier contract to move if they decide to do so sometime in the next season.

Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston had Bobby Marks of ESPN to talk about the Celtics roster and retooling within this new CBA. He also believes that Boston should retain Grant anywhere from $12-14 million over four years.

Grant has a role and fills an immediate need on this team regarding backup plans for both Al Horford and Rob Williams. 

In all, I expect Boston to match an offer sheet and re-sign Grant. 

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