Thursday's 124-103 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies showed just how important Robert Williams III is to this Portland Trail Blazers roster. Considering this game was closer than the 21-point finish, it's no overstatement to say this one could've turned in Portland's favor had Williams simply been available.
Last season he proved to be one of the most valuable backup bigs in the association, finally staying relatively healthy with 59 games played -- the second most of his career. Blazers general manager Joe Cronin then was able to extend Williams this offseason on a team-friendly three-year, $44 million deal with injury protections baked in.
Still, the concern remained: What happens in games like Thursday where Williams is unavailable?
Blazers are overreliant on an injury-prone Robert Williams III
Time Lord is listed as day-to-day after sitting against the Grizzlies due to left knee injury management. History suggests there's going to be 20+ games that Portland will be without Williams this season.
Cronin attempted to address that problem by creating a logjam of bigs, bringing in Branden Carlson and Micah Potter. However, as Thursday's loss showed, this team isn't much closer to solving the problem than last season when interim head coach Tiago Splitter was forced to rely on Yang Hansen more frequently than he probably would've liked.
Last season, the Blazers managed to overcome Williams' absence in terms of winning games, as they were roughly around .500 with or without him. They finished 12-11 in games without Williams and 30-29 with him. Unfortunately, it would be surprising if that trend continues, largely due to the fact that Portland depends on Williams even more this season.
Why Portland depends on Time Lord more than ever
Before the loss to Memphis, the undersized backcourt pieces of Scoot Henderson, Ja Morant, Damian Lillard, and Jrue Holiday were fitting far better than expected. Some of that is just because they're all a versatile, unselfish, and talented group of guards. But it also never would've been a working formula had Portland not had the bigs in place to cover.
The Grizzlies were exploiting Donovan Clingan's drop coverage when he was in, with bigs like Cameron Boozer capable of stretching the floor. But when Clingan went to the bench, Portland had little to no rim protection. Branden Carlson is 220 pounds, trying to cover the 305-pound Zach Edey or Isaiah Stewart, a guy whose nickname is literally Beef Stew. Stewart finished with an efficient 18 points in just 16 minutes.
Head coach Micah Nori swapped from Carlson to Micah Potter as the first center to spell Clingan in the second half. That gave him a little more offense but was even more of a disaster in terms of having that interior presence.
The Blazers will look to bounce back from their first loss of the season with a Saturday road matchup against another up-and-coming Western Conference team, the Utah Jazz. Hopefully Williams can go in that one, as he's become such an important piece of the Blazers' winning formula. But as we saw Thursday, the downside of that is relying on such an injury-prone player.
Even though the Blazers mitigated injury risk in the contract, they'll still be vulnerable on the court throughout the season. And with the number of guards they have, Williams' absence will only become a bigger issue for Portland.
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