Video breakdown: Neemias Queta's growth for Boston Celtics highlighted in two plays

The Celtics won their 30th game of the season Friday night, beating the Sacramento Kings to join five other teams in the league with 30 or more wins. It’s obviously been a bit of a surprising season for the Celtics, who are tied with the New York Knicks for the second seed in the East and still have the league’s second-best offense and second-best net rating.

There are a few different reasons for that, but one of the biggest is the development of Neemias Queta. He went from third-string and sometimes unplayable to starting for the Celtics this year and clearly being missed when he misses time.

“He's a great player,” Joe Mazzulla said after the win over the Kings. “His ability to, I'd say, both ends of the floor, defensively, his ability to protect the rim, our ability to cross-match when he's out there, offensively, like you said, his screening vs. different coverages, his offensive rebounding. I mean, he's grown and developed into a very important player for us, and you can see a difference when we have him.”

One characteristic that stood out the most against Sacramento was his growing ability to read both the defense and his teammates, giving Celtics guards an outlet for passes when they draw multiple defenders. This goes beyond just setting good screens and rolling to the basket. There were two plays that jumped out early in this game that showed how well Queta is seeing everything and how far he’s come as a player.

Both involve a similar skill, which is reading and relocating on the baseline. It’s a critical skill for a big man to hone because it maintains good spacing and gives his teammates a passing option. On top of that, it usually leads to buckets.

On this play, Queta demonstrates his first skill, which is getting in and out of a pick quickly. In fact, you’ll see he doesn’t even set an actual screen, which is okay because he’s already accomplished his goal of getting the defender to chase Pritchard and get him on Pritchard’s hip.

The Kings were playing drop coverage, so Pritchard didn’t have a lane to drive or pass against the retreating big. Derrick White’s man came over to prevent the lob, so Queta adjusted.

Boston Celtics vs. Sacramento Kings — Broadcast screenshot

Pritchard is driving right, so Queta goes to the left side to find some space. As Pritchard cut back left, Queta moved further towards the corner, suddenly finding himself in “get out of the way” mode.

But that quickly changed as Pritchard got his defender up in the air and went to a step-through move, Queta recognized his defender would have to step up, so he quickly planted and cut, which got him an easy dunk.

So Queta started with a standard pick-and-roll, adjusted once when they sniffed it out, a second time to relocate, a third to get out of the way, and a fourth to plant and cut. When you’re playing with Pritchard, who has a great handle and loves to use it, being able to read all the twists and turns is critical to being in the right spots.

“That comes with time,” Queta explained. “I feel like it's just being able to give them a window, whenever they're in tough spots and going to the rim or even in a pick and roll, I feel like that's the main thing. Just being able to give them windows no matter what … After that, I feel like they can find me and make my job so easy.”

Later in the second quarter, they did something similar, but with an added twist.

Queta starts with an off-ball screen to open Pritchard up for the catch. He rolled hard just in case there was an opening, but it wasn’t there.

Hey, you never know when a defender will fall asleep, right?

This time Pritchard is cut off and Queta comes up to give him a reset, which flows into a pick-and-roll. Once again, Sacramento tags the roller so there's no lob there. The Kings are in drop coverage again, but this time the big is further up so now there's an opening for a lob. If you watch Queta closely at the :13-:15 mark, you can see him loading up for it. He actually hops a little because his brain told him “here’s comes the alley oooops no never mind.”

Pritchard tried another step-through, but he was too deep and too covered. But he did see Queta’s pink sneakers cutting along the baseline. Pritchard smartly decides against a little bounce pass to the big in that situation, which would have been an easy turnover or trap. Instead, he fades away, which draws just enough attention to loop a hook pass in to Queta for the layup.

“I like to play out of the 10-foot range a lot,” Pritchard said. “It allows me to sometimes draw two, and for him, it's finding little windows for the lob or even little dump-offs so he can go up. So we still got to get better and better at it, but like, we've taken a lot of big steps, and it allows us to get easy buckets.”

Another huge reason why Queta has helped the Celtics so much is that he’s catching passes like that last one and going straight up with them. A year ago, he was bringing that ball down to his knees to load up for a big jump, which would lead to turnovers, tie-ups, or contested shot. Learning to catch high and finish high has been a massive step forward for him.

Queta has taken a surprisingly large step forward this season, and is a big reason why the Celtics are as good as they are. These types of plays show the growth and hard work he’s put in to become a valuable part of the rotation.