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Grant Williams’ advice to young players buried in Boston’s rotation? ‘Keep your head, keep your heart’

Justin Quinn
·3 min read
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It wasn’t that long ago that Boston Celtics reserve forward Grant Williams found himself buried in the team’s rotation, only seeing the light of day when another player ahead of him couldn’t suit up due to injury or illness.

Now, the Tennesse product is a regular part of Boston’s main core of players, one of the first off of the bench and even occasionally spot starting for the Celtics. And with one of the younger rosters in the NBA at the moment, there are several other players currently going through what his experience was in 2020-21, a situation not lost on the press who asked him what advice he might share with teammates Aaron Nesmith, Payton Pritchard, Bruno Fernando and others.

“I just tell them to keep your head, keep your heart, because we see the work you put in every single day,” he replied.

“We noticed that not only you’re going to make shots, but you’re also going to prepare for the moment,” Williams continued.

“That moment is going to come whether a guy’s out, or whether you just get the opportunity. You have to be prepared, never take days off or slack off because you think it’s not going to come. That’s something that I went through last season where you never knew when I was going in and I just had to stay prepared, and I struggled with it. So, I told them to learn from me and learn from that experience. In my rookie year, I was way better at it than I was this past year, so keep your attitude the right way. Keep your mind the right way, because we’re having fun — let’s be happy, we’re winning!”

“At the end of the day, you’re going to get that opportunity one way or the other, and we know you’re going to step up into that opportunity and shine,” he said with an upbeat air of someone who just came out on the other end of that tunnel with success.

Something of an old soul in terms of the maturity he has brought to the game since arriving in the league after being drafted by Boston in the 2019 NBA draft, the Charlotte native brings up good points for his teammates.

And with the team set to take on the Brooklyn Nets down multiple players on Wednesday evening, his “next-man-up” philosophy isn’t just talk, but a critical part of how the Celtics will need to operate to get through a part of their schedule that is especially difficult.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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