Neemias Queta just went from fringe piece to firmly paid. The Boston Celtics are set to lock in the breakout big man with a four-year extension worth about $56 million, according to reports. The 7-foot center's rise from the edge of the rotation to a reliable starter last season made him a clear priority for the front office as Boston shapes its roster for another title push.
Reported terms and how it surfaced
The four-year, roughly $56 million agreement surfaced Friday through national reporting tied to ESPN insider Shams Charania and the local beat, as detailed by the Boston Herald. Earlier in the week, the Celtics had already exercised Queta’s $2.7 million team option, a move first reported by Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe and later noted by CBS Sports. Veteran Al Horford told the Herald that "Queta’s emergence has been the biggest surprise," a line local reporters pointed to as a tidy summary of just how fast the big man has climbed in Boston’s hierarchy.
Numbers that backed the payday
Queta averaged 10.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting better than 65 percent from the floor across 76 outings, 75 of them starts, numbers that turned heads around the league, according to Land of Basketball. His season totals and his finish in awards voting helped strengthen his case for a sizable raise, with the league's official tallies posted at NBA.com.
Where this leaves Boston's frontcourt
Boston also agreed to bring in veteran rim protector Mitchell Robinson on a reported three-year, $47.4 million deal, giving the Celtics another interior option in free agency. NBA.com reported Robinson's agreement, and by our math, Queta’s $56 million over four years and Robinson’s $47.4 million over three come out to roughly $29.8 million per season combined, a figure local coverage described as just under $30 million for both players together. The pairing gives coach Joe Mazzulla matchup flexibility in the paint but also sets up some interesting questions about rotations and foul management in tight fourth quarters.
What's next
Queta's journey from a 2021 second-round pick who bounced through two-way deals to a starting center in Boston is a big reason the front office moved quickly to secure him, and now the club will see how the Queta-Robinson mix looks when the games start to matter. Local beat writers and Celtics insiders note that Queta was installed as Boston's full-time starter last season and that the team plans to monitor training camp battles and early-season rotations closely, per reporting from NBC Boston and CelticsBlog.
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