Throughout his NBA career so far, Neemias Queta has steadily improved. Until last year, that was. Last year, the improvement was anything but steady. Last year, it was a leap.
Queta went from a fourth-string center to a starter in a matter of months. He blossomed into one of the most valuable centers in the league, especially on the defensive end of the court.
When Queta was on the floor last year, opposing teams' effective field goal percentage dropped by 3.8%. That ranked in the 94th percentile at his position. One of the best marks in the NBA. Among the 164 players who played at least 1,500 minutes last season, Queta was fifth in the NBA. The only two centers who ranked better than Queta were Victor Wembanyama (first, -4.6%) and Rudy Gobert (third, -4.1%). Defensively, Queta is already top-notch.
Offensively, on the other hand, Queta still has room to improve. And next season, he may be able to break out into a better offensive player than he's ever been.
For the last few years, throughout Jayson Tatum's prime, Boston hasn't had a true lob-threat big man. Not since Robert Williams III. Queta is exactly that. And Tatum is best suited to help him thrive on offense.
Last season, Queta's at-the-rim connection varied by player. In the 67 games Jaylen Brown played with Queta, he assisted the big man at the rim 52 times. The ratio is certainly much better with Derrick White or Payton Pritchard as the ball-handler.
White and Queta played 73 games together last season. He assisted Queta at the rim 66 times. Pritchard and Queta? They played 74 games together and tallied 68 rim assists.
Lastly, there's Tatum. The smallest sample size of the bunch by far. He and Queta only played in 16 games together last season, but in those 16 games, he assisted his center at the rim 22 times.
Queta averaged 2.1 pick-and-roll man possessions per game. Boston averaged 1.35 points per possession on those looks, which ranked 11th among the 89 players who ran at least one pick-and-roll man possession per game.
Here is a list of a few players who got more pick-and-roll man possessions per game than Queta last year: Alex Sarr (3.8), Maxime Raynaud (3.1), Deandre Ayton (2.7), Guerschon Yabusele (2.7), Jusuf Nurkic (2.6), and Jock Landale (2.3).
Obviously, the Celtics had plenty of offensive options last year. They're going to have plenty next season. But with how efficient Queta was in the pick-and-roll -- and with Tatum in Brown's place as the primary creator for most of the year -- giving the Portuguese big man more rim attempts seems like a no-brainer.
Let's take a look at rim assists per 100 possessions -- literally, how many assists at the rim a player averaged per 100 possessions. For context, last year, Brown averaged 2.1 rim assists per 100 possessions. In the 2024-25 season, Tatum doled out 2.2, but in his limited appearances after coming back last season, that number jumped to 2.9.
That makes sense. You're going to dish out more assists at the rim with Queta as your center instead of Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis. Those guys are floor-spacers first, lob threats second (if at all).
Pritchard averaged 2.3 rim assists per 100 possessions, and White averaged 2.9. Meanwhile, the best playmakers in the league put up much higher numbers. Luka Doncic: 5.1. Nikola Jokic: 6.7. Cade Cunningham: 6.9.
That's the type of chemistry Tatum, Pritchard, and White need to develop with Queta. The efficiency is there. He just needs more experience. And now, he has a team around him that can help him get it.
Queta isn't the only one who can thrive in the pick-and-roll with the Celtics next year, though. Mitchell Robinson only averaged 0.8 pick-and-roll man possessions per game, but he was wildly efficient.
The New York Knicks scored 1.70 points per possession in actions with Robinson as the PnR man. Only Caleb Love (a 6-foot-3 guard who averaged 0.3 PnR man possessions per game) was more efficient (1.71).
Running more actions with Robinson as the ball-handler could