After Successful Knee Surgery, Robert Williams Will Now Miss At Least 8-12 Weeks Which Is DOUBLE The Initial Timeline

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

When it rains it pours I guess. 

It was enough of a shock when earlier this week we got this Woj bomb

it pretty much came out of nowhere. Everything we had heard about Rob was that he was doing well. While tough, a 4-6 week timeline was something you could stomach. Maybe he'd be back around Thanksgiving or something. Once we learned that Brad wasn't going to bring in any outside veteran help, that led me to believe this was just a cleanup.

Enter today's news. Now the timeline is TWICE AS LONG. Add it to the list of never ever ever ever being able to trust any sort of initial injury timeline when it comes to this team. Sure sounds like way more than just a normal cleanup to me and that's pretty terrifying. Remember, just because he'll be cleared for basketball activities in 8-12 weeks does NOT mean he'll be on the court playing in games in 8-12 weeks. You're probably looking at some time in January at the earliest if I had to guess. The team is obviously going to be OVERLY cautious given how important Rob is.

Now that he's had the surgery and we have a more up to date timeline, I wonder if Brad is going to revisit his stance about bringing in outside help. This is not a "miss the first 5-6 games of the season" type of situation where you could maybe get by with Luke Kornet/Mfiondu Kabengele. Even if Brad believes in Kornet in a more expanded role, you still need bodies. You can do both in my opinion, especially if your goal is to still load manage Al Horford. Even with Ime suspended and Gallo out for the year and now Rob out for at least 8-12 weeks, you cannot punt on this season. Deep down I think Brad knows that so it wouldn't shock me if we do see some actual vets brought in with camp set to open next week.

There's also concern long term about Rob's knee/health. It's to this day the biggest question mark in regards to the ceiling of this current core. When he's healthy and on the floor, they are legit unstoppable. Last year showed us that. 

Advertisement

I just don't think anyone can say with certainty how often we'll even get to see him healthy. That's a pretty big deal when you talk about the future of this team. Take the head coaching issue out of it and just focus on the actual roster. Horford is getting older. His theoretical replacement in Grant still hasn't signed an extension and could absolutely get a big RFA offer if he has another solid season. Gallo will be a year older and coming off ACL surgery. There is really no current big man depth for Rob outside of Luke Kornet. Things suddenly feel MUCH different from where we were a few months ago that's for sure.

It's crazy how much can change in just a few months. Every Woj/Shams bomb we're getting these days is worse and worse news. No Gallo, Rob probably won't play until 2023, Ime's out and training camp hasn't even started yet. What an absolutely unreal turn of events. That's the NBA though, nothing is guaranteed. It's why you can't take things for granted or assume everything will go a certain way just because of past performance. Every year is a new beast and so far things are not off to a great start.