Before making the big move to the Dallas Mavericks this summer, Grant Williams spent the first four seasons of his career with the Boston Celtics. During that time, the new Mavs recruit had the opportunity to play under three different coaches — all of whom have made their respective marks not only on the franchise but in the NBA as well.

In a recent interview on JJ Redick's The Old Man & the Three podcast, Williams shared his thoughts on all three coaches. He started off with Brad Stevens, who before being promoted to the Celtics' president of basketball operations, served as the team's head coach for eight seasons.

“Brad, I would say was a great X’s and O’s coach, who’s a great analytics guy,” Williams said, via Ben DuBose of Yahoo Sports. “He followed that, and he followed the numbers but also did a good job of making sure we drew up a play. He felt like he was directly involved.”

It was Ime Udoka who succeeded Stevens, and according to Williams, the former stands out as the best coach he's ever played for:

“About Ime, I thought he was the best of both worlds,” Williams said. “He was not only able to do X’s and O’s, defense and everything like that and has a grit to him that allowed him to relate to players in a personal level that allowed him to challenge them to be the best they could possibly be while also having the respect enough to understand that he doesn’t have to challenge them, always. He can lift them up, too. That’s why I think Ime is probably the best one I’ve played for.”

Unfortunately for Udoka, his extracurricular activities off the court led to his season-long suspension and eventually, his decision to part ways with the Celtics. Udoka now plies his trade for the Houston Rockets where he is set to coach in his debut season in 2023-24.

Finally, Grant Williams talked about the style of current Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla. Williams had nothing but good things to say about Coach Joe:

“And then with Joe, he’s similar to Brad in the sense that he is very analytical, but he has an offensive-based mind,” said Williams. “He’ll provide the team with a great mentality of pace, and space and open shots and threes, which is the new generation and new age.”

Now that he's with the Mavs, it will be interesting to see if Coach Jason Kidd climbs up Williams' ladder.