Celtics Role Player Sneaky X-Factor To Boston’s Title Repeat Chances

It seemed like Xavier Tillman Sr. wouldn’t be back with the Boston Celtics after they won an NBA title last season.

Tillman, a solid rotation piece that could fit on any NBA team, got seldom minutes on a deep and talented Boston squad after the Celtics acquired him from the Memphis Grizzlies at the trade deadline. A player of his caliber likely would set his sights on landing a bigger role elsewhere.

But Tillman decided this offseason to stay with the Celtics on a two-year, $4.8 million deal and despite Boston overwhelmingly keeping its championship roster intact, a larger role still might come Tillman’s way. And with that, Tillman could emerge as a sneaky X-factor for the Celtics as they try to be the first team since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors to repeat as NBA champions.

Tillman could see more playing time, especially early on in the season, due to Kristaps Porzingis still recovering from a “rare” ankle injury — he’s expected to be sidelined until December. And with Al Horford entering his 18th NBA season and the 38-year-old’s workload always a question, it could open quite the opportunity for Tillman.

He will have to show that he deserves it more than Boston’s other backup big men in Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta. But it feels like Joe Mazzulla’s coaching staff trusts Tillman more than Kornet and Queta. They showed that in the NBA Finals when Tillman provided a spark off the bench on the road in Game 3, contributing three points, four rebounds and two blocks in 11 minutes.

“If I can do my role to the best of my abilities, I will then be ‘special.’ But it takes the team in order to do it,” Tillman recently told UPROXX. “My role is not the same as (Jayson Tatum’s, my role is not the same as (Porzingis’s). And so for me, if I’m able to do the things that I said — the defense, the screening, the spacing the floor — that makes me special. I don’t have to be or play like JT in order to be special, I can be special in my role, and that’s something that Joe has told me from the rip. And it gave me a lot of confidence, because you want to feel valued, more importantly than anything, no matter if you’re working any type of job, you want to feel valued. You want to feel like you matter, and the effort that you’re putting in is actually significant.”

The Celtics have emphasized Tillman shooting more 3-pointers this season, especially from the corner. The 25-year-old is a career 26.7% 3-point shooter, but he did shoot 33.8% from beyond the arc as a rookie.

That might be the key to unlocking Tillman and having him become a valuable piece in the regular rotation. And if that comes to fruition, Tillman’s fingerprints could be much more present on another championship run for the Celtics.