Former Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis, who was traded to Atlanta earlier this summer, has high praise for one of his ex-teammates in Boston. In a EuroBasket group play encounter this week, Porzingis led his native Latvia to a 78-62 blowout victory over Neemias Queta‘s home country of Portugal.
Porzingis scored 21 points, grabbed nine boards, dished out three dimes, and blocked one shot. Queta, however, held his own against his former teammate, registering 16 points, seven rebounds, two steals, and a block. As Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews relays, Porzingis lauded Queta for his recent growth.
“Nimi has been getting better each year,” Porzingis said. “And Coach [Joe] Mazzulla has been pretty tough on him. And I believe he’s getting to a point where he deserves some real minutes, some real rotation minutes.”
Queta will likely compete with new signings Chris Boucher and Luka Garza and fellow holdover Xavier Tillman for minutes at the five spot.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- With training camp fast approaching for the new-look Celtics, Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston polled a panel of colleagues about their top questions and concerns ahead of the team’s 2025/26 season. Boston will be without injured All-Star forward Jayson Tatum and former starters Porzingis and Jrue Holiday — both of whom were traded away to save money. Third-string center Luke Kornet left in free agency, while sixth man big Al Horford is still unsigned. Questions about Celtics president Brad Stevens‘ team building, Joe Mazzulla‘s ability to coach up a non-championship roster, and more popped up.
- The Knicks are hiring former L.A. Clippers director of international pro scouting Ermal Kuqo to serve as their senior director of minor league operations, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
- In case you missed it, Sixers guard Jared McCain has indicated that he expects to be available when Philadelphia’s training camp opens up later this month.
Hoopshype has the top 10 rotation guys on Boston being:
Queta-Boucher-Brown-White-Pritchard
Garza-Walsh-Scheierman-Hauser-Simons
That’s not a top 6 team, imo. They can always make moves but this is a meh team right now. Magic, Hawks, Cavs, Knicks, Bucks, Pistons all clear them. Celtics as they stand today are on that play-in tier with the Raptors, Heat, Pacers and 76ers.
link to hoopshype.com
No its a top 4 team in the weak east.
They have plenty of scoring with Brown, White (both all star level), Pritchard, Hauser and Simons. Only question is how good will their D be and if Queta can keep the boards respectable.
Remember they went to the ECFs with IT4 and Jae Crowder.
Stop hating Celtics.
Knicks, Cavs and Magic are better.
Pacers are without Haliburton
Who the eff knows what the Hawks are
Detroit might be better, but I doubt it
Philly is all about injuries and Embiid, without him they are lottery again
Nets..No
Bull…No
Wizards…No
Bucks are a complete ????
Heat…No
Raptors..No
IF Atlanta is good, which I doubt, then maybe we are talking about a top 5 team.
Sorry, People are crazy, White and Brown are still All star level players and the Celtics will score over 100 every game with their shooters.
Sixers without Embiid still a good playoff team. They are deep. And have a few young players who are still growing as players. Drummond is capable of starting and playing 30 mins. Sixers had an excellent draft and McCain is back.
If Celtics want to be a playoff team. They have to keep Simons. Imo he is a good mate to White. He will get plenty of good looks. He can be a 20 pt scorer.
The Magic and Pistons are deep both will be formidable this year. Sixers get Embiid back. They are a contender. I don’t see East as weaker. Just changing of the guard is all. Heat and Raptors with right trade. Can both be playoff teams. Hawks will be better. They are also a young team getting better. Overall the East has more young talent spread out. Where the West has two talented young teams. West is deeper with (vet) teams.