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Celtics Mailbag: Why can’t former starter get minutes for Boston?
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- Celtics Mailbag: Why can’t former starter get minutes for Boston?
The Celtics are playing their best basketball of the season, riding a three-game winning streak and wins in eight of their last ten games after beating the Wizards on Thursday night. With trade rumors beginning to swirl around the NBA, let’s give some thoughts about where Boston stands at the quarter pole, rotation thoughts and much more in this week’s mailbag.
Hi Brian,
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What’s Xavier Tillman doing wrong to stay out of the rotation? He is supposedly healthy now but even with Neemias Queta out, Joe played Amari Williams first off the bench against the Pistons! Thanks. — Andy
Outside of strong start in Cleveland filling in for Queta over the weekend, Tillman has largely been missing in action over the past few weeks for Joe Mazzulla. He played just 13 total minutes for the rest of November outside of his 30 on Sunday and he hasn’t been seen since once Queta has returned to the lineup.
Ultimately, I think a lot of this comes down to the metrics. Tillman got a chance early but the numbers with him on the floor (net rating: minus-8) were tough at center. It quickly became apparent Joe Mazzulla was not going to roll with double bigs this year and Tillman doesn’t exactly help a lot with spacing or rebounding from the center position (although I’d argue he is better option than Luka Garza on those fronts). However, the Celtics are now simply moving away from backup center big entirely it feels like with the emergence of Josh Minott as a valuable backup center. It’s the right move in my mind since it allows for more minutes for Boston’s other younger and more promising wings ( Hugo Gonzalez , Minott, Baylor Scheierman ). Tillman is a known commodity at this point so it makes sense to invest more in the unknown rather than Tillman at this point for the future. With that said, when Boston does go big off the bench, I’d prefer to see Tillman over Garza.
At the first quarter mark of the season, what letter grade do you give the Celtics? Better yet, why that grade? — Ed H
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My grade for now would be in the B-plus range that could shoot up towards an A by the end of this weekend. It was a bit of a rocky start featuring some ugly finishes in close games. However, the long-term trajectory of how this season has gone is quite promising so far. Jaylen Brown has played as well as anyone could have hoped as the No. 1 option. The young wings have all had their moments with a couple of them (Hugo Gonzalez, Josh Minott) looking like real keepers on the defensive end. Joe Mazzulla has also found the right formula it feels like with his rotation as the season has advanced, opting for small ball lineups instead of overmatched backup bigs.
The combination of those factors make the Celtics outlook look far better than anticipated. The advanced metrics say Boston should have a better record than their 13-9 mark and the fact that the Celtics offensive rating is higher this year than last year (before Thursday’s game) is a pretty impressive achievement so far. Ultimately, there will be some bumps in the road (likely due to health) but the Celtics look like they can hold their own against pretty much any team in the Eastern Conference. That’s a spot most people did not rerealisticallyhink they would be in given the roster turnover and a high grade is deserved accordingly.
What’s the worst-case scenario for a Giannis trade destination for the Celtics?
The Knicks is the easy answer here, but I don’t think it’s a realistic one. I just don’t see them having enough assets to get a deal done with a lack of valuable draft picks available. Antetokounmpo would be really screwing over Milwaukee by making that the only place he’d re-sign.
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If the bidding is open to everyone, the Hawks would scare me a lot if they could land him without giving up Jalen Johnson . Atlanta has a ton of good young talent and role players in place already along with a strong coach in Quinn Snyder. Throw Antetokounmpo into that mix (along with some salary cap room to add this summer) and that’s a team that becomes a problem for the Celtics and everyone else in the Eastern Conference in a hurry. Not sure many other teams in the East would have enough talent leftover to be a top contender after giving up what’s required for Antetokounmpo.
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