Xavier Tillman is back.
The last time Tillman played at least eight minutes for the Boston Celtics was on November 4th in a Celtics blowout against the Atlanta Hawks. For reasons that remain unclear to me, Tillman has been riding the bench. It’s fair to say Tillman struggled in his minutes earlier in the season, but he has too big of a sample size of being an impactful NBA player for that to be the reason he has been stapled to the bench.
The most obvious answer is often the correct answer: Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics have been prioritizing Neemias Queta’s development over the known commodities of Tillman and to some extent, Luke Kornet.