Joe Mazzulla on Neemias Queta: ‘he doesn’t understand how good he may be’

Neemias Queta is nicely on his method of turning into one other one of many Celtics developmental success tales. On Monday night time, the 25-year-old acquired his first begin of the season in opposition to the Hawks and after a rocky begin, he course-corrected within the second half and confirmed why Boston invested in him this summer season.

In a 30-point blowout, Queta completed with 10 factors, seven rebounds, and a block and was a +31 on the night time. It was a continuation of what’s been a optimistic stretch on this four-game street journey. He’d had three consecutive video games with 10+ minutes in taking part in time earlier than the beginning in opposition to the Hawks, together with logging a +18 in a livid comeback in Indiana because the closing massive.

“I feel he’s a little bit extra snug. He is aware of the place he’s purported to be at,” Derrick White mentioned pre-game. “He appears to be in the precise place on the proper time — clearly, offensive rebounds and him as an athlete. He’s a little bit completely different from the opposite bigs now we have. It’s a pleasant change of tempo.”

As a starter, he was a pure match subsequent to Al Horford in a two-big alignment with Horford spacing the ground and defending the paint and Queta flying round as a rim runner and assist defender.

Lots of his factors both got here off the offensive glass, operating the ground in transition, or instinctively being in the precise place on the proper time.

The place there’s so much to be desired is on the defensive finish. Possibly as a result of it’s the beginning of first full yr within the NBA, possibly it’s as a result of he depends too closely on his athleticism, Queta is usually a step late and a shift of the hips off. After two blown ISO’s in opposition to Jalen Johnson within the first quarter, Queta was benched. After that first stint with blended outcomes, Jrue Vacation and Jayson Tatum dapped him up and Joe Mazzulla pulled him apart.

“He’s simply grown so much as a participant, and fairly actually, he doesn’t understand how good he may be,” head coach Joe Mazzulla mentioned after the sport. “He’s acquired a fantastic ceiling, so the usual could be very excessive. I believed he did some nice issues for us tonight. Whenever you’re nearly as good as he may be, all of us gotta maintain him to that normal each single night time.”

White was a little bit extra direct.

“I feel Neemy is our most athletic massive. I don’t suppose that’s controversial — sorry, Luke. He’s just a bit bit extra athletic and he’s transferring nicely on the market.”

After Johnson cooked him for eight factors within the first quarter, he shot simply 1-for-6 within the third with Queta as his main defender. Right here’s Queta sticking to Trae Younger step-for-step:

We speak on a regular basis in our CelticsBlog Slack about Queta’s similarities to Robert Williams III. The wingspan and the hops are undeniably Timelord, however so are the early defensive struggles. Too typically in Williams’ early years was he prone to pump fakes and fast first steps. Fortunately, he’s acquired a depth of information to dig in to within the locker room. Al Horford, Luke Kornet, and Xavier Tillman are all plus-positional defenders.

Extra so, the group is behind him. After signing a three-year deal this summer season, thus begins Queta’s studying curve. Mazzulla mentioned that he’s choosing issues up pretty shortly and that he likes utilizing Queta’s versatility as a result of he supplies one other factor as a switchable defender.

“He works actually exhausting. He cares. He desires to be coached, and I’m grateful he permits me to teach him,” Mazzulla mentioned. “He’s beginning to notice how good he actually may be.”