BOSTON — Neemias Queta has spent this season turning a spare-center role into one of the strongest breakout stories on the Celtics’ roster, and Jaylen Brown said Sunday the big man belongs in the Most Improved Player conversation.
Queta scored 18 points and added seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks in Boston’s 115-101 win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. He finished 9 of 10 from the floor in 34 minutes, another efficient night in a season that has already produced the most productive stretch of his five-year NBA career.
The numbers explain why Brown sounded so certain. Queta is averaging 10.2 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game, has 16 double-doubles in 73 games and has piled up 98 blocks. He had just two double-doubles in his first 110 career games and only 73 combined blocks in his first four NBA seasons. Through Sunday, he entered sixth in the league in block percentage and eighth in offensive rebound percentage.
Brown said Queta’s growth has been obvious from the start of the season, describing it as almost night and day. He pointed to a player who is connecting better with teammates, seeing the floor more clearly and showing a much stronger feel for the game. For Brown, Queta has gone from a useful reserve to someone Boston can lean on when the margin matters.
That shift has been especially important for a Celtics team that lost Kristaps Porziņģis, Al Horford and Luke Kornet from its center rotation and still sat second in the Eastern Conference. Queta moved into a starting role during that stretch, and Boston has outscored opponents by 13.3 points per 100 possessions with him on the court, compared with plus-3.7 when he is on the bench. He was tied with Derrick White for the Celtics’ largest net rating swing through Sunday.
Queta said before the game that he thinks about winning Most Improved Player all the time, and after the victory he made clear the award is not driving him. He said he feels he has made a good case, but that the only thing he can control is helping the team win. He called the award secondary and said it would not change the way he approaches each night, whether he wins it or not.
The timing matters because Brown’s endorsement came with the regular season nearing its end, when individual awards often begin to settle. Queta is not just putting up better numbers. He is doing it in a role Boston needed filled, and doing it while the Celtics have held their position near the top of the East despite losing size around him. That is the kind of season that can turn a backup into an award candidate.
For Queta, the bigger question now is whether a player who began the year as fourth-string center can finish it with hardware to match the leap.
