Celtics forward undergoes surgery

Reserve Celtics power forward Grant Williams went under the knife for hand surgery Friday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN was the first to report.

The Celtics confirmed Williams had surgery to repair a tear of the radial collateral ligament of the third metacarpophalangeal joint on his left hand. He is expected to make a full return to basketball activities in six to eight weeks, per the team.

The 24-year-old suffered the injury in March, per Woj, but opted to play through it to finish out the season. Williams found himself in and out of Boston’s playoff rotation en route to an eventual Game 7 Eastern Conference Finals loss against the Heat.

Williams is a restricted free agent this summer and is coming off a career regular-season run. In 25.9 minutes per game, the 6-foot-6 vet out of Tennessee posted averages of 8.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists across 79 contests.

Because he played more than 2,000 minutes in 2022-23, he has met the league’s “starter criteria” for restricted free agents, and has thus seen his qualifying offer get a $2M uptick, to $8,486,620. It is assumed that Boston will look to offload one of its three combo guards — Malcolm Brogdon, Marcus Smart or Derrick White — in an effort to retain Williams  this summer.