Looking for signs of sustainable progress in Neemias Queta's EuroBasket performance

Neemias Queta has had plenty of ups and downs to start his Celtics career. He's had enough decent games that people think he'll do well with more opportunity, but he's also been benched enough to make it clear he hasn't been fully trusted by the team. When the Celtics needed some size in last season's playoffs, Queta wasn't even on Joe Mazzulla's radar. 

The 26-year-old 7-footer will have a chance to show the Celtics something this summer as Portugal's starting center in the EuroBasket tournament. His 23-point (on 11-15 shooting), 18-rebound, 4-block performance versus Czechia was a good start, but how much of this game is actually translatable to the NBA? 

Let's start with an obvious, blanket statement: Putting up 23 and 18 is always good, especially in a tournament with national teams. This thing is a big deal, and most of the NBA's European players are participating. Czechia is FIBA's 19th-ranked team, while Portugal is 56th, and Queta's performance on both ends was the main reason why Portugal was able to pull off the upset. So even though I'll be picking a few nits as this analysis rolls on, nothing changes the fact that Queta was good and he helped lead an upset over a better team.

At the same time, Queta was the biggest guy on the floor. Outside of Vit Krejci, Queta was the only guy with any real NBA experience. And the defense they played against Queta was so bad. 

A Spain pick-and-roll is basically a high pick-and-roll with an added screen for the big man rolling to the basket. The screen is often set by a shooter who can pop out to the 3-point line if too much attention is paid to the roll man. 

Of course, they paid almost no attention to the roll man on this play. The second screen wasn't even that good, but Queta still got a free run to the basket. So credit to Portugal for executing the play and finishing it off, but NBA defenses will be better than that most of the time. 

It got worse.

This was like a youth basketball game where all the kids just go to the ball. 

So it's safe to say a few of those 11 baskets came against defense he would never see in the NBA. However, there was some good in there. 

He was able to get in and out of screens quickly, which got him into the spots that forced the defense to make mistakes. In that last clip, Queta goes from setting the screen with 2:12 on the clock to past the defender in the middle of the lane at 2:11. That's important here because it forces the defense to make fast decisions when they're clearly incapable of doing so. 

Queta is moving well, getting to good spots, and creating problems this defense is having trouble solving. Their lack of size and poor decision-making allowed Queta to destroy them on the inside. 

He also showed a flash of an outside game. 

I've watched Queta go through shooting drills, so expanding his game is not a big surprise. This, of course, is only one shot, so we can't overreact to one shot going in. 

But it is a nice looking shot. He shot it with confidence. It looked fluid. I'm curious to see how this progresses. He also did this:

Time was winding down and he had to make a play. He won't be able to pull that off against an NBA defender, but again, he drilled a jumper. If he can become a threat, even in the mid-range, it will change the entire dynamic of his game. Again, not overreacting, but just a thought to keep in mind. 

Can he get good looks against NBA defenses, and can he knock them down? I'm intrigued. 

I think the best thing I saw from him was keeping the ball higher than usual.

I've killed Queta for bringing the ball down too low on his gathers. He corrected that as the season went on last year, and he seems to be carrying that into EuroBasket. 

Queta's biggest problem is that he's knock-kneed, which saps his lower-body strength. Too often, as he moves or crouches to gather, his knees come together, which reduces the power his hamstrings, glutes, and calves can generate upward. That has led to him crouching deeper, thus bringing the ball down further, so he can generate the power he needs to dunk. 

He needs to correct that habit somehow so he can produce a quicker bounce off the catch or second jump off an offensive rebound. That will help him keep the ball higher because he won't have to crouch as much. Still, going up quicker and laying it in will work fine for now. He'll get a shot blocked by a quick-jumping big from time to time, but he won't get the ball stripped as much. It will be a net-positive. 

So it was good to see him playing well. He did have four blocks, a couple of which were sheer hustle plays and another couple that were teed up by small guards. Queta did what he had to do defensively, protecting the rim and discouraging drives. He played like an NBA player against lesser competition. This was, in a way, a glorified summer league game in that the competition he faced was beneath him, so success against it is what should be expected. 

He excelled in that role, which is great to see. But as I always say about games like that, failure is more indicative than success. There will be nothing "summer league" when Queta and Portugal face Serbia and Nikola Jokić tomorrow afternoon. If he can perform well there, then we might be on to something.