It’s not completely crazy for people not to be fully buying into Neemias Queta’s breakout season. However, it is absolutely crazy that HoopsHype just put out their center rankings, listing the top 27 at that position, and left Neemy off of their list entirely.
I had to do a double-take after scrolling through the list, thinking surely my eyes had deceived me and I had simply missed Queta’s spot on the list. But after carefully going through the entire rankings, name by name, it was confirmed. And frankly, it makes absolutely zero sense.
He doesn’t have the pedigree of a lot of his contemporaries, as he wallowed away in the G League for years, finally making his way into an NBA rotation for the first time last season. But as the starter for the Celtics, he was excellent last season, proving to be one of the best defensive anchors in the entire league and one of the most efficient finishers on offense.
The numbers suggested that he was, at worst, a top-10 center in the league, and possibly even better. If you’re not all the way bought in on that, that’s fair enough. But to leave him completely out of the top-27? That’s absurd.
Celtics could easily have two of the best 20 centers in the NBA
Believe it or not, the Celtics did have a center appear on the list, but it was their new addition, Mitchell Robinson. It’s debatable who is the better overall player between Mitch and Neemy, but Robinson has been a part-time bench player, while Queta started 75 games and played over 25 minutes per contest.
There’s just no reason to think that Queta is this far off the radar at his position after what he showed last year. Even with some regression, he’d comfortably be a top-15 big man, and if he takes another leap, as he has for every season of his career, he could cement himself as clearly one of the ten best centers in the NBA.
Nobody is suggesting he should be on the level of the top players like Victor Wembanyama or Nikola Jokic, but seeing guys like Nic Claxton, Dereck Lively, and Ke’lel Ware on the list is a joke.
Luckily, at the end of the day, these rankings mean absolutely nothing. If anything, it’s just one more piece of motivation for a guy who has been doubted and counted out for his entire career. And all Queta has done is continue to improve and build himself into a quality starting center. Clearly, he still has a way to go to earn the respect he deserves, but my money is on him getting there eventually.
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