Spurs Prospect Watch: Killian Tillie

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The San Antonio Spurs are sitting at 27-21 right now and are comfortably outside of the lottery. With a pick in the 18-22 range, they will have to do some solid scouting to make sure they draft a player at the right value for the pick and who can help the team in the near future. However, it’s even trickier to find someone in the second round who can do those things.

That brings us to this week’s prospect to watch for in Gonzaga big man Killian Tillie. He has only played five games this season after undergoing surgery on his ankle before the season started. So be aware of small sample size theatre when you see the numbers he’s put up so far this year. And here they are:

  • 8.0 PPG, 1.4 BPG, 2.2 APG, 4,8 RPG
  • 51.7 FG%, 33.3 3P%, 71.4 FT%
  • 24.3 PER, 123.4 ORtg, 87.2 DRtg

Tillie has been steadily improving every year he’s been on Gonzaga’s campus and once he gets back into his groove with the team this season, the Bulldogs will become incredibly dangerous. He has stretch big potential and could provide immediate help offensively at his position. For the Spurs, he would basically be the reverse Jakob Poeltl. Does a lot of nice things offensively, but would struggle on defense to make a difference. It’s not for a lack of effort so much as it is a lack of athleticism and explosiveness though.

The junior does a lot of things well on the offensive end of the court. He scores on the move well, has a nice righty jump hook in the post, has great touch on his runners, projects to be a good three-point shooter and has a terrific motor to boot. He can attack closeouts from big men with a solid enough handle and get to his floater that way more often than not. His shot is also fluid and has easy repeatability, which is one reason his three-point is projected to be good at the next level.

While offense is a bright spot for the young man, his defense could use some work. He actually can play some solid defense when he gets down in a stance, but he does not do that as often as he should. He’s able to hedge well enough on screens, but he doesn’t have the quickness to stay on switches and guard out on the perimeter. He needs to put on some weight in order to hold his own on drives against him and to create space in the post on offense.

He’s still a great pick at the right spot for the Spurs. The 30th pick is probably high right now, but he could very well play himself into that spot should he show us a little more than what we’ve seen so far this season.

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