Glad to have Tillman back but this horford comparison needs to stop. It?s absurd. He can?t shoot and is short for the position. He?s never gonna protect the rim .
I think the main similarities are that he can guard up and down positions and from high up on TV he looks like Al. He's a poor man's Al Horford...
Tillman is like Horford on defense & rebounding. Not the offensive player Horford is.
That might be as much as we can hope for in a Horford replacement given both (1) how rare a talent Horford is (2) how limited the team is financially with all the money owed to the 5 starters.
The thing is, it's not like Horford is a prolific scorer either. Yes during his prime he was a regular starter but typically averaged around 14-16 PPG. It's not like Horford usually averages 30 a game. In a role player setting, Horford has averaged 8-10 PPG the last two seasons. Tillman averaged 5 PPG last season while playing fewer minutes.
Yeah Tillman probably isn't gonna become a 3-point shooter like Horford but you never know. Even Horford didn't really develop a 3-point arsenal until about 2015 when he was now 8 years into the league. Tillman is still just 25. If he can develop even the ability to hit open corner 3s like he did once against DAL in Game 3 of the Finals, awesome!
The hope with Tillman is that he can replicate Horford's bench role, with the rebounding, defense and occasional playmaking which I hope he's learning behind the scenes.
It's less Al's actual offensive production and more the threat of what he can do which is the difference IMO...because even though Horford isn't a 30ppg scorer, teams know he shoots 35-40% from 3 and so they can't really cheat off him on D. With X they know he probably won't shoot and if he does they live with the shot.
I know they weeded that 3 point shot out of Luke's game so he could focus on offensive rebounding and protecting the rim as the help defender, but for X I think it would be useful to add such a shot to his arsenal, if he could.
