BOSTON — Xavier Tillman showed what he can provide the Celtics during the 2024 NBA Finals, where he made a huge shot while playing stout defense on Luka Doncic. But Tillman was buried on the bench throughout last season as he wasn’t healthy on his way to a career-low 33 games played.
Tillman was bogged down by left knee issues, detailing some of those struggles after the Celtics’ first practice of training camp Tuesday. But the C’s big man hopes those flareups are behind him as he’s felt healthy throughout the summer heading into the new season.
“From just a playing perspective, it was very hard,” Tillman said of last season. “Just wanting to play, wanting to contribute. But I also knew I was going through stuff myself. My knee would have days where it would just swell up into a balloon after I had one scrimmage or stuff like that. So I knew consistency-wise, I could be there to kind of support. But as far as my actual play, I couldn’t do everything I wanted to do.”
Tillman said his knee bogged him down last January and he needed to get a stem cell injection in March. That really helped, he detailed, to the point where “my knee swelling has been the lowest it’s been since I’ve been here.” The knee issues dated back to his fourth season in the league, the 2023-24 campaign, where he had his first flare-up and his meniscus tore off in pieces. Ever since then, it’s been about maintenance.
Other than making sure his knee is in good shape, Tillman slimmed down as he lost 12 pounds in the offseason. He said it was “boring,” where he was just eating chicken, salmon, rice and other staples. But he had a chef during the summer who made it easier for him to lose weight ahead of an important season.
Opportunity awaits for Tillman, Neemias Queta and Luka Garza. No position was slimmed down more for the Celtics after trading away Kristaps Porzingis, plus Luke Kornet (Spurs) and Al Horford (Warriors) signing elsewhere in free agency. So there are minutes to go around for Tillman, who’s healthy and has a path to playing time.
“Definitely shooting, as you’ll probably notice as we get going in the season and stuff like that,” Tillman said. “I’ve put up a tireless amount of shots. So definitely my shooting. You’ll see my defense come back again where I’ll make cuts and do things where it’s like, OK, you can really switch and guard one through five, and it’s because of my knee health and that I got it back in the right direction.”
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