Celtics breakout starter snubbed as finalist for NBA award

But Queta didn’t garner that much buzz nationally when it came to the award. His impact defensively is a huge piece of the puzzle, and that doesn’t generate much award discussions compared to other guys. It’s still clear how impressive Queta’s leap was this season, though, as he’s the Celtics’ starting center going forward.

The other finalists also have strong cases for the award, as well. Avdija was an All-Star this season and upped his scoring to 24.2 points per game. Duren is a similar story, being named to his first All-Star team to help lead the No. 1-seeded Pistons. Alexander-Walker also more than doubled his scoring output compared to last season in his first season with the Hawks.

Still, Queta had a great case himself. While he wasn’t named an All-Star like a couple of the other guys, his leap from fourth big man in Boston’s rotation to legit starter was an important storyline. The Celtics lost their top-3 centers from last year only to have Queta develop his way into a nightly contributor.

“Neemi’s been great,” Jaylen Brown said of Queta. “He’s been just consistently getting better, protecting the rim, finishing, making those little shots, rebounding. He’s been great. In my opinion, he’s probably one of the Most Improved Players this year, and I don’t know if he’s up for the award, but he should be.”

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