The Most Improved Player case for Neemias Queta who is probably better than your team’s big man

The 2025-2026 Boston Celtics have been defined by exceeding expectations, and no one on this Celtics roster, and maybe not in the entire league, has exceeded expectations more than Neemias Queta.

There were plenty of reasons to be skeptical of the Celtics coming into the season; they would be relying on a roster comprised of unproven late-round draft picks and players on veteran minimum contracts, and the perceived lack of talent at the big man position was front and center when it came to doubting the team’s ability to compete at a high level. Enter Neemias Queta, who has now established himself as a rock-solid starting center who should be in serious consideration for winning the Most Improved Player Award. 

The Portuguese big man’s jump from fourth-string center to high-impact starter for the Boston Celtics is one of the league’s great development stories. There were glimpses of this leap over the summer, when Queta led Portugal to its first EuroBasket victory in 18 years against the Czech Republic, a game in which he racked up 23 points, 18 rebounds, and 4 blocks in just 30 minutes.

I dismissed the Celtics big man’s EuroBasket performance as “it’s just EuroBasket.” It was not just EuroBasket. Neemias has developed into a full-fledged wrecking ball capable of blasting through the dusty walls of an aging Andre Drummond en route to 27 points, 17 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 3 blocks. With zero turnovers. Take a bow, Neemias Queta.

Neemias Queta has taken steps on both ends of the court, but the defense is what jumps off the screen — and the stat sheet. The raw box score numbers don’t immediately scream high impact: 10 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.3 blocks per game. Solid production. And only 20 big men are averaging at least 10 points, 8 rebounds, and 1 block this season. But to truly understand his impact, look at the on/off splits. When Queta is on the floor, the Celtics post a 109.7 defensive rating — a number that would rank third in the league. When he sits, that number balloons to 115.8, which would rank 16th.

That swing is massive. Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus (via dunksandthrees.com), which measures a player’s defensive impact per 100 possessions, places him in the 97th percentile league-wide and 7th among big men — trailing only Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Rudy Gobert, Isaiah Hartenstein, Jonathan Isaac, and Paul Reed. Considering Isaac and Reed’s limited minutes, the company becomes even more exclusive. And that impact matters. There have been plenty of pleasant surprises in Boston this season — Hugo Gonzalez emerging as a draft steal, Luka Garza proving he belongs in a rotation, Baylor Scheierman earning a starting role with his defense — but without Queta anchoring the paint, this team likely isn’t pacing toward 55 wins and sitting nine games clear of the 7th seed. All of it coming on a veteran minimum contract.

The numbers indicate he belongs among the elite defensively. The film backs it up. The variety of ways Joe Mazzulla can deploy Boston’s anchor on a given night allows the Celtics to morph into whatever defensive animal they need to slow down opponents. 

We’ll start with Queta playing some base drop coverage as the Celtics try to contain Tyrese Maxey. 

You can hear Queta yelling “Ice! Ice! Ice! Ice!”. Which means Queta wants Baylor to shade to the side of the screen, so Maxey has to reject it and drive towards him. Queta moves his feet and funnels Maxey into his no-fly zone and collects an impressive block.

Next, we see Queta flash his versatility and execute pick-and-roll defense by staying up at the level of the screen.

First, Queta contains Maxey out in space and blocks his step-back attempt. Shades of Robert Williams, anyone? Drummond collects the loose ball and fires it to VJ Edgecomb, which flows into a pick-and-roll that Queta defends by staying up at the level of the screen, slides his feet to stay with the explosive Edgecomb, and forces an extremely difficult shot. Clutch defense. 

Last, we see the big man as a helpside defender or roamer. 

Queta’s timing and decision-making for when to leave his feet for block attempts has significantly improved. The 7-footer waits until Oubre is fully committed, knows he can get the block, and sends the ball back into the second row of the crowd. 

We didn’t even have to use examples from multiple games in order to show off Queta’s defensive versatility. It’s not hard to see why the Celtics allow the fewest shots at the rim in the entire NBA, while ranking 7th in opponent accuracy at the rim. The Queta (and Derrick White) (and Joe Mazzulla) Effect. 

If you have watched the majority of Celtics games over the past two seasons, Neemias Queta’s Most Improved case speaks for itself. The statistical case is a little bit more difficult to make, because the raw numbers from last season vs. this season don’t scream Most Improved.

Here’s the real argument: Queta went from fourth-string afterthought to starting center on a contender with the league’s third-best point differential. The defense falls apart when he sits. And the people voting on this award spent the preseason predicting he’d be the reason Boston finished below .500. I also believe there is a lot more development for Queta to grow into, so does Queta.

“I feel like I’m taking strides in so many different aspects of my game, and there’s so much more I can get better at.”

It’s wild to say, but there isn’t a lot of room left for growth on the defensive end — if Queta is going to join those names at the tippy top of the defensive mountain with Chet Holmgren, Evan Mobley, etc. But I have stopped putting ceilings on players who play for the Boston Celtics. Where I see the most potential for growth is on the offensive end. We have already seen signs of that growth this season. Queta is shooting a career-high 74% at the rim this season, which puts him in the 77th percentile, and is up from 70% at the rim last season. However, that number doesn’t do Queta’s growth around the rim justice. Queta’s touch and confidence around the basket is night and day. 

Queta is rewarded for busting his ass to get up the floor. He catches the pass, takes the contact from VJ Edgecomb, hangs, clutches, finishes. The Garden goes bonkers.  

The case for Neemias Queta to be at worst one of the finalists for Most Improved is open-and-shut. But as Joe Mazzulla responded after winning a Coach of the Month award in 2024, “nobody cares.” What Joe Mazzulla, Queta, and the Boston Celtics care about is success in the postseason. That will be the second-round pick’s final test and where he can solidify himself as the Boston Celtics’ big man of the future. As we move towards the playoffs, and continue to marvel at Queta’s seemingly daily improvement, how many big men would I take in the playoffs before I get to Neemias Queta? 

There is a group of guys at the top that I think are comfortably clear of Neemias Queta at this point: Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Evan Mobley, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Anthony Davis. 

There might be a couple of players in this tier whose GMs would trade them for the Boston big man straight up — if the salary cap allowed it.

I think Queta belongs somewhere in this next group: Bam Adebayo, Jalen Duren, Alperen Sengun, Isaiah Hartenstein, Ivica Zubac, Joel Embiid (I’m never sure how to rank Embiid), Domantas Sabonis, Jarrett Allen, Donovan Clingan. 

That makes Queta, at worst, the 16th-best big man in the NBA this season. This is the world we are living in.

I left out players like Jaren Jackson Jr. that are best optimized with another big man. If you can’t anchor the team as the lone big, then you are not on my big man ranking. 

Some more casual observers probably think Queta belongs in this next group: Walker Kessler, Isaiah Stewart, Nic Claxton, Mitchell Robinson, Onyeka Okongwu, Luke Kornet, and Alex Sarr. 

Even if there is some truth to Queta belonging in that group, which I would vehemently push back against, that is still a massive jump from where Queta was projected by most coming into the season. 

If Neemias Queta has gone from fourth-string center — part of what many labeled the worst frontcourt in the league — to anchoring the sixth-best defense in basketball, serving as a driving force behind a team with championship aspirations, and pacing toward 77 games played, then it’s not a stretch to say he’s closing in on top-10 status at his position.

The Celtics thought they were patching a hole at center. They may have found their anchor for the next decade.