Ranking all 5 Celtics big men ahead of the 2024-25 season

3. Xavier Tillman

Xavier Tillman was acquired at last year's trade deadline. In his 20 games with the Celtics, he averaged 4.0 points and 2.7 rebounds on 51.5% shooting from the field and 28.6% shooting from three.

Tillman is a crafty defender, an old-school bruiser in the post, and he provides some necessary depth behind an aging Al Horford and an injury-prone Kristaps Porzingis. Plus, his game-winner against the Sacramento Kings was a nice and unexpected touch.

Throughout most of the playoffs, opportunities were little to non-existent for the reserve big man. Tillman only played 8.6 minutes per game with averages of 1.5 points and 1.8 rebounds.

However, the NBA Finals proved different. He played valuable minutes as the eighth man when Porzingis went down. He had two blocks on Luka Doncic, an and-one layup in game four, and a corner three-pointer in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

Not only did he make some major contributions in one of the biggest games of the year, but he also signed a multi-year contract extension with Boston this summer.