Neemias Queta enjoying a breakout year in the NBA as he shatters personal records

[p]In his fifth NBA season, the 26-year-old Portuguese center has become a starter for the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/boston-celtics/KYD9hVEm/"]Celtics[/a], where he is now in his third year. He has become a key factor in Boston’s impressive campaign, with the team currently sitting second in the Eastern Conference. At the start of the season, there were plenty of doubts, especially after [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/tatum-jayson/t4Y4e7r0/"]Jayson Tatum[/a]’s injury and the departure of several important players.[/p][p]After limited playing time in his first four seasons - his first two with the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/sacramento-kings/CvwE1OCB/"]Sacramento Kings[/a], who drafted him - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/queta-neemias/KfenVDPP/"]Neemias Queta[/a] has played 57 games this season, starting in 56 of them. He is now just five games away from matching his career-high for appearances in a single season, set last year.[/p][embed guid="8b147096-b63f-459a-9b2b-9efadeaa9664" url="https://x.com/celtics/status/2028323168797286694" social-type="twitter" /][p]Before this season, the Portuguese centre had only started six games, and those came during periods when the Celtics were rotating their roster.[/p][p]This year, Neemias Queta has already set career highs in assists (6), steals (3), blocks (6), and rebounds (20). He also became the first player in NBA history to record 10 offensive and 10 defensive rebounds in a single game, all in under 25 minutes.[/p][p]Overall, Queta has already surpassed his combined totals from the previous four seasons in points (575 in 2025/26 compared to 521 before), rebounds (476 versus 400), assists (86 versus 72), steals (50 versus 32), and blocks (76 versus 73).[/p][embed guid="681ebbbd-db3b-434f-861b-bff8754a6eb4" url="https://x.com/NBAonNBC/status/2028320502456918084" social-type="twitter" /][p]With more playing time, Queta’s averages have also improved significantly compared to previous seasons: 10.1 points (previous best was 5.5 in 2023/24), 8.4 rebounds (4.4 in 2023/24), 1.5 assists (0.7 in 2023/24 and 2024/25), 0.9 steals (0.5 in 2023/24), and 1.3 blocks (0.8 in 2023/24) in 24.9 minutes per game (13.9 in 2024/25).[/p][p]Queta has played a total of 167 regular season games: 147 for the Celtics (28 in 2023/24, 62 in 2024/25, and 57 in 2025/26), with whom he won a championship in his debut season, and 20 for the Sacramento Kings - 15 in 2021/22 as a [i]rookie[/i] and five in 2022/23.[/p][embed guid="9fe154ef-872d-4263-87d0-e209c2f8fb26" url="https://x.com/UofBasketball/status/2019463464675160532" social-type="twitter" /][p]The 26-year-old Portuguese international centre was selected by the Sacramento Kings with the 39th pick in the 2021 NBA draft, becoming the first Portuguese player ever to play in the league. He remains the only one to do so.[/p]