The Celtics get defensive
Xavier Tillman and Jaden Springer are the newest Celtics. Here’s what they gave up for them.
Lamar Stevens
Dalano Banton
3 second round picks
The Celtics moved on from two non rotation player for two non rotation players. The difference is the skill set. Tillman and Springer are not going to top the crack 8. Pritchard and Hauser are solidified in their roles and the “starting 6” speaks for itself. However, both Tillman and Springer come with defensive upside. Tillman should be able to relinquish some minutes from Horford and Prozingus with our sacrafising the interior defense. Love that lanky lurch, Kornet as much as the next guy but you can only defend a 3 point shot from the paint so much. Quetta is everybody’s darling, but he’s raw, inconsistant, and more of an off ball defender. With Tillman surrounded by the offensive power of some combination of Tatum, Brown, White, Holiday, etc he can focus on standing up some of the bigger post threats.
Springer probably has even less of a chance of seeing the floor. He can’t shoot for shit. He’s a 23% three point shooter as a guard in the NBA in 2024. I’m surprised Mazzula let this kid through the door. But, he can lock down. His most recent displays were against Curry and Luka. The Celtics historically have struggled with on ball defense vs. the elite guards in the league. Curry, Trae, Luka, even when the had ex self described and earned DPOY, heart and soul of the Celtics, sure fire self proclaimed HOF’r Marcus Smart. So, if Mazzula can get his head out of the spread sheets and his nerds ass to recognize a moment shift perhaps he could implement Springer has a spark. Momentum is found on defense. Full court defense and annoying ass players causing turnovers and easy buckets. Derek White is fantastic, but his role has evolved into more than that guy. Springer has a role on paper. It’s just a small role.
As stated before, short of bringing in the corpse of Bill Russell or a bionic Larry Bird the championship hopes of this team rely on Jayson Tatum learning how to win close and late. Xavier Tillman will have zero impact on that at the end of the day. But, overall. Nice deadline for Brad. Gave up nothing to improve on the margins in an area of need. Keep an eye out for them in the buy out market. They did not really address the depth issue at wing. Otto Porter is still the name getting tossed to the top of that list.