Daniel Theis has found his niche with the Boston Celtics.
The 27-year-old center has tallied career-highs in minutes per game (23.5), points (9.0), rebounds (6.7) and blocks (1.3) in his third year with the C’s, all while increasing his field goal percentage to 55.4 percent and starting 52 of his 53 games played.
Gordon Hayward praised Theis for being “unselfish” after he produced an impressive career-high double-double in a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves recently.
Marcus Smart also depicted that fellow Celtics have not taken Theis’ productivity for granted this season.
“If Theis wasn’t there to fill that void for our bigs, I don’t know where we’d be right now, to be honest with you,” Smart said, per The Athletic’s Jay King. “We would be in some trouble, man.”
In addition to all the statistical contributions Theis has provided, he’s helped in many ways that don’t find the stat sheet.
On the offensive end, Theis is perfectly playing the C’s pick-and-roll offense while creating room for teammates to get to the rim. Theis played a career-high 39-plus minutes in the Celtics’ overtime loss to the Houston Rockets on Saturday. It helped boost his average minutes during the last eight games to just shy of 29 minutes per game.
And on the opposite end of the floor, the 6-foot-8, 215-pound Theis is making it tough on opponents to finish at the rim, which coach Brad Stevens noted after the Minnesota game. That production is a key reason why Theis’ minutes have increased for the C’s with fellow center Enes Kanter taking a back seat in recent contests.
Theis will have another chance to put an impressive performance together as the Celtics host the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday at TD Garden at 7:30 p.m. ET.
