When the Celtics said goodbye to Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis, and Luke Kornet last offseason, there was a lot of concern about the state of the center position. But luckily, Neemias Queta was able to come in and answer almost every question on both ends of the floor.
And while they didn’t have their conventional switchable big man, as Horford had been for so many years, Queta became a true backline anchor and a monster in drop coverage. He passed the eye test with flying colors, and the metrics back it up.
BBall Index breaks big men into either anchor bigs or mobile bigs depending on whether they switch screens or play drop coverage. Neemy is your classic, traditional center who plays drop coverage, sagging back when his man sets a ball screen, waiting for the action to come to him as the handler’s man fights through the screen.
Queta was 5th-best anchor big in the NBA in 2025-26
They measure rim protection, screener rim defense, and defensive rebounding to create a measurement for anchor big defensive talent, and Queta finished fifth in that category last season across all NBA big men. The only players who finished ahead of him were Victor Wembanyama, Rob Williams, Donovan Clingan, and Rudy Gobert.
Those are generational defensive big men, and Neemy stacked up with all of them in just his first season as part of an NBA rotation. With a new contract, a full year of experience under his belt, and an offseason to hone his skills, the sky is the limit, and there’s no reason to think Queta won’t take another leap forward.
Anyone thinking last season was a fluke hasn’t seen the work that Queta has put in to go from G League afterthought to starting center for the Boston Celtics. He has worked and fought relentlessly to earn an opportunity, and when he finally earned one, he ran with it.
This summer, he has been dominating for the Portuguese national team, and the Celtics added a legitimate counterpart in Mitchell Robinson. Mitch can do a bit more switching, but he plays a similar style to Neemy and should help form a dynamic center duo on both ends for Boston.
Queta's rim protection allows Celtics' defenders to gamble for steals
The Celtics have stacked the roster with strong perimeter defenders, and they employ very few liabilities. Guys are going to make ball handlers work hard to get anything going, and that’s going to allow Queta to sit back and feast on blocks and rebounds around the rim.
Knowing that they have an elite last line of defense is also going to allow the Cs to unleash their defensive playmaker, take more chances, and create more chaos. This should lead to more steals, deflections, and transition opportunities, and if they get beat or lose on a gamble, opponents are still going to have their hands full trying to deal with Queta.
It’s an exciting prospect, and one that should make Celtics fans very excited. This defense is going to be special for a long time to come, and Queta is going to be the man in the back, anchoring everything, hopefully for many years to come.
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