In 2019, Tennessee basketball overcame an eight-point deficit with under three minutes to go to beat the Kentucky Wildcats in the SEC Tournament semifinals. At the heart of that comeback was a clutch Grant Williams three, something that has become regular for him these NBA Playoffs.
The Vols had already cut the lead to two thanks to a three-pointer from Admiral Schofield the previous possession. Then, off a turnover, Williams hit the three to give them a 75-74 lead. They held on to win 82-78, which won them the season series and was the best win of one of their greatest seasons in school history.
Three years later, Williams carried the Boston Celtics to a huge Game 7 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the NBA Playoffs. He did so with a team-leading 27 points, which came off of him going 7-of-18 shooting from the three-point line because Milwauke didn’t respect his shot.
That legendary performance is connected to that one three Williams hit against Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. The three was a preview of how clutch Williams can be and how he could turn his successful college run into an NBA career as an undersized power forward.
When Williams committed to the Vols back in 2019, he was a three-star. His issue was being an undersized power forward at 6’6″ who couldn’t offset it with athleticism. You would think a guy like that who turned into a two-time All-American and first-round NBA Draft pick would’ve done so by developing an outside shot.
However, Williams more so developed a dominant inside game under Rick Barnes, learning to use his width and understanding of positioning to make up for his lack of height. He still had solid finesse under the basket and was an elite free throw shooter, hitting 82 percent of his free throws his final year there.
Those were factors that gave him NBA potential. The three-point shot, though, was only about potential at the time. In three years on Rocky Top, he hit 30 total threes and just under 30 percent from the three. What was clear, though, was that if he could become a legitimate threat from there, he’d have what he needs to make it in the pros.
It took some years to develop that. Williams shot 25 percent from three his first year in the NBA. However, he doubled his totals his second year and improved his percentage to 37 percent. This year, he emerged, averaging just under eight points a game but doing so by shooting over 40 percent from three and hitting nearly one and a half a game.
Everybody who followed Williams in college saw this coming. He had the potential, and his work ethic was clear. If he needed to develop a three-point shot to make his pro career last, he was going to develop a three-point shot. They also saw his clutch gene, so his NBA Playoffs success was going to happen.
All of this came together in this series. The Bucks did not trust Williams on the perimeter and knew they had the size to contend with him in the paint, so they forced him to rely on taking threes. Well, that’s all he did the whole series. Although he was below average for most of the series, he stepped up when it matter.
When he was most needed early on, Game 2, he went 6-of-9 from outside en route to 21 points. He had an off-game in Game 6, but Boston was still able to win. With that off-game, all the pressure was on him in Game 7, and he delivered in a huge way.
Now, Boston is headed to the Eastern Conference Finals and may be the favorite in the NBA Playoffs. It all comes back to the way Williams has willingly developed over the years along with the clutch gene he clearly has. Three years into the league, his future is extremely bright.