Tag: Daniel Theis

Celtics to sit 6 best players vs. Wizards in final Disney seeding game

The Boston Celtics will sit Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward, Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Daniel Theis and Kemba Walker vs. the Wiz.

The Boston Celtics’ six best players will be taking the game against the Washington Wizards off on Thursday, but don’t be overly concerned if you see their names on the injured list.

While it is true that forward Jayson Tatum did step on the foot of Memphis Grizzlies big man Jonas Valanciunas, he managed to play through whatever discomfort he had to finish the game in Tuesday’s 122 – 107 win, and center Daniel Theis’ had a sore foot even before that game began, the rest is more about getting in some rest before the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs.

Slated to begin August 17th, that would only leaves a few days off to heal up, assuming Boston would play on that day or at latest the day after pending schedule finalization.

In addition to Tatum and Theis, the Celtics will also sit guards Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart, and forward Gordon Hayward, giving full reign for the Celtics’ bench to play the Wizards — or rather, their stripped-down, second- and third- string players who made it to the ‘bubble’.

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Daniel Theis’ shooting key to Boston beating bigger teams

Boston starting center Daniel Theis knows his outside shot helps the Celtics make up for their smaller frontcourt.

Boston Celtics starting center Daniel Theis knows he needs to do more than help create seals to get his teammates a lane to the basket and pull down rebounds.

He also needs to use his shooting against bigs who can outmuscle him in the paint.

“It’s very important, especially a team like [the] Toronto [Raptors] or Milwaukee [Bucks], they pack the paint so much,” offered Theis after the win over the Raps. “I’ve got to space of course sometimes, like today in the corner …my team trusts me and I’ve got to knock down the shot.”

The results of what can happen when the Salzgitter native connects often enough to pull those bigs just a few feet away from the basket were on display on Friday, as Theis’ shooting made life difficult for Raptors center Marc Gasol.

It nearly got them the win against the league-leading Bucks, too.

“I think it’s important that he’s a threat,” explained Celtics head coach Brad Stevens after the win over Toronto. “He doesn’t chuck all night, he picks and chooses the right ones. He is more than capable of making it, but he also knows when to flip it to a guard that’s behind him.”

Boston made it clear they are a legitimate title threat when everyone plays their role on both ends of the floor, and for Theis to be an effective starting center at 6-foot-8, he’s got to be enough of a threat to draw those bigs out of the paint.

While his shooting is certainly not the most important part of Boston’s offense in a direct way, it does make life easier for the rest of his teammates n a big way.

And for the Celtics to continue rolling other teams the way they have in their last two contests, they’ll Theis to shoot the 3 early, and often.

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Celtics showed their depth with no 25-point scorer in blowout win

Seven players scored in double figures during the Celtics’ blowout win Wednesday against the Brooklyn Nets.

The Boston Celtics really don’t bank on any of their top players going off to earn wins.

Sure, Jayson Tatum scored 30-plus points seven times during February, but Boston was still 4-1 when he didn’t score 30 or more in the month; the Celtics were 5-2 when he did.

Tatum’s quality performances were more indicative of his personal development — Boston wasn’t getting any better or worse.

And on Wednesday, the Celtics continued to prove why their balanced scoring works. Jaylen Brown scored a team-high 21 points and led the Celtics to a 149-115 blowout win over the Brooklyn Nets.

Six other players scored in double figures, and according to ESPN Stats & Info, Boston scored the most points without boasting a 25-point scorer since the Seattle SuperSonics accomplished the feat on April 14, 1994. The Sonics beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 150-101, and 10 players scored in double figues. Detlef Schrempf had a team-high 21 points.

Throughout the season, the Celtics have had a plethora of options. Brown attacks the rim well. Tatum is showing he’ll be one of the league’s most sound scorers for years to come. Gordon Hayward can score from multiple places on the floor. Kemba Walker shakes defenders for easy pull-up jumpers.

Tatum, Walker, Brown, Hayward and Smart are each averaging double figures in points per game. The trio of Tatum, Walker and Brown are each averaging 20 or more a game, making for a three-pronged attack that’s tough to stop.

With the Celtics at third place in the Eastern Conference, their next seeding game will be Friday against the Toronto Raptors.

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Daniel Theis has been getting in extra work for Bucks, postseason

Boston Celtics starting center Daniel Theis has been putting in extra time getting ready to face the Milwaukee Bucks and whoever Boston faces in the playoffs.

The Boston Celtics have made it very clear their priority is the postseason in this Disney- hosted season restart, and starting center Daniel Theis only added fuel to that fire after the team’s Friday morning shootaround session.

With how Boston has handled point guard Kemba Walker’s knee, coach Brad Stevens emphasizing the postseason readiness over seeding games, or veteran guard Marcus Smart explicitly saying the team is there to win a banner, the Celtics haven’t been at all secretive about their priorities in this restart.

We can now add the team’s master of the screen to that chorus as well.

“We have now three weeks … to prepare for [the playoffs]”, offered the German big man when asked how ready he was for longer minutes in the postseason.

“We had practices with scrimmages. I tried to get extra work in,” he added, “so it’s hard to copy like a real game, so we’ll see how far the conditioning goes tonight  — but pretty much same thing.”

For what it’s worth, with two important players (guards Eric Bledsoe and Pat Connaughton) of their rotation out recovering from recent COVID-19 infections, it seems that’s the plan with the Bucks as well.

The Celtics, for once, find themselves with a totally clean bill of health.

“I’m happy about it,” explained Theis. “I don’t know how many guys who played with the full roster; probably less than 10 the whole season, so it’s going to be interesting.”

“Now we’ve got eight games to get everybody in playoff shape, and hopefully everybody [will] stay healthy and we’ve got to have a great push for [the] next eight games and then playoffs, so I’m just happy that we’ve got the whole team together now, so we can actually play our Celtics basketball.”

While both teams will likely go as hard as they have since the start of the exhibition scrimmage games last week, we may see moves (like minutes restrictions actually being enforced and unusual lineups) that are not obviously conducive to winning a regular season game.

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And if that still seems puzzling, just take it from Theis (and Stevens and Smart) that the primary goal isn’t a win over Milwaukee in the regular season.

It’s winning four of seven in the Conference Finals — against the Bucks, or any other comers.

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WATCH: Daniel Theis CRUSHES Jaylen Brown in Disney restart pool race

Watch Boston Celtics center Daniel Theis leave shooting guard Jaylen Brown bobbing in his wake as the two raced in a pool during their down time.

You can take the competitor out of the game, but you can’t take the competitiveness out of them, which the Boston Celtics have been demonstrating in their downtime at the Disney restart ‘bubble’.

Passing their time off at the Wide World of Sports complex may have a limited range of options, but the Celtics seem able to find ways to compete against each other no matter the backdrop, and such was the scene at a local pool on the Disney NBA campus.

In the second such aquatic race between two Celtics, German big man Daniel Theis utterly waxed Georgian shooting guard Jaylen Brown as the former put on his best Michael Phelps impersonation for the friendly contest.

In the background, you can hear teammate Marcus Smart shout, “He could have beat you running!”

Watch the clip embedded above that was posted by Boston.com to Twitter Tuesday for yourself.

And never challenge Theis to a water-based race, evidently.

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Theis credits Horford, Baynes for teaching him to excel as a center

Boston Celtics starting center Aron Baynes credits former teammates Al Horford and Aron Baynes for teaching him how to be a center in today’s NBA.

Boston Celtics starting center Daniel Theis knows his role on the team, and he executes it with precision on the regular.

He doesn’t do too much, nor too little — which is harder than it sounds given his roles on the team.

He’s a release-valve for when his more offensively prodigious teammates get double-teamed, an expert screen-setter on the other end, and on shot-blocking and loose-ball corralling duties whenever the need arises.

He also doesn’t need the rock to be effective.

“I think I fit the first unit pretty good because I don’t need the ball in my hands,” related the German big man in Tuesday’s Celtics media availability.

“We have so many guys around with Kemba [Walker], Gordon [Hayward], [Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown] — they’re natural scorers, so I just try to get them open with screens, get them open with shots, and just moving off the ball.”

Boston does have other quality options on the team who could play the five.

But, second-year center Robert Williams still needs enough healthy floortime to get his sea legs under him, and outspoken Turkish big man Enes Kanter isn’t a great fit with the first unit — simply due to his own strengths.

“I think that’s why I fit the first unit so well,” added Theis, “because when Enes [Kanter] is on the court, Enes is post player — he needs the ball in his hands; he’s a great post player, he can pass out of the post, he can score.”

Unlike Kanter, Theis also had a two-season runway to learn from some of the best defensive big men in the game how to maximize his own strengths within the Celtics’ system.

“I was lucky; I learned my first two years from Al Horford, from Aron Baynes — especially on the defensive end what it means to be a center on an NBA team. You’ve got to be vocal, you’ve got to be a leader. You see the whole court, see the whole team in front of you.”

And Theis has been very vocal on the court this season, quietly morphing into one of the best screeners in the league while somehow continuing to fly under the radar of the national press.

The Celtics likely don’t mind the extra cover the low-key excellence provides, but Theis is long overdue for more credit to how he’s contributed to Boston’s top-five performances on both ends of the court this season.

“My job is just to protect everybody on the court on the defensive end as well,” added the Salzgitter native, and despite not being the biggest, burliest, or best known big man in the East, it’s hard to argue he hasn’t been doing exactly that — and in spades.

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On this day: Ray Allen born; Theis, Yabu, Wesley signed; Moore dealt

On this day, ex-Celtic champ Ray Allen was born, Daniel Theis, Guerschon Yabusele and Davis Wesley traded and E’Twaun Moore traded.

On this day in 1975, former Boston Celtics sharpshooter Ray Allen was born in Merced, California.

A military kid, Allen “grew up” in a lot of places, but graduated high school in Dalzell, South Carolina. He attended the University of Connecticut for college, where he won Big East and UPI Player of the Year awards in 1996.

He would be drafted fifth overall in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves, but was dealt to the Milwaukee Bucks on draft night. He would also play for the Seattle Supersonics before being dealt to the Celtics in the summer of 2007.

There, he would help convince big man Kevin Garnett to come to Boston to set the stage for a new “Big Three” of he, KG and Paul Pierce. The trio would win a title together in 2008.

But, injuries and bad luck combined with several attempts to deal Allen by the front office eroded the spirit of “Ubuntu” behind the team’s last title, and would eventually lead to Allen decamping to the Miami Heat.

The move, for less money than the Celtics were offering to a conference rival, created a rift between that Banner 17 title crew that is yet to be completely healed, unfortunately.

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While some Celtics have fallen hard for golf, not all share the love

While Jayson Tatum has joined the camp of Boston Celtics in love with golf, some teammates have a more ambivalent feeling towards the sport.

With Boston Celtics All-Star forward Jayson Tatum going on his seventh consecutive day of hitting the links in Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, you’d be excused if you thought some of the people he’s had come out with him share the same enthusiasm for the sport.

Given team president Danny Ainge was outed in “The Last Dance” as having played golf with His Airness during a 1986 playoff series, and rookie forward Grant Williams has recently picked up the game, it’s easy to see how one might come to such a conclusion.

But while there are indeed a number of Celtics new and old with the itch to play the popular low-intensity pastime, many others are just along for the ride — if they are even on the links in the first place.

 

Veteran forward Gordon Hayward recently related he’s not especially adept or especially interested in the sport, and at Thursday’s post-practice media availability, starting point guard Kemba Walker echoed similar sentiments.

“I’m terrible, bro — honestly, I’m awful,” opined the UConn product.

Center Daniel Theis sounded a bit more interested than Hayward or Walker, but revealed he too had just picked up the sport.

“I went yesterday my first time, and the lightning stopped me after like 30 minutes,” Theis explained. “So I tried today again … just trying a new hobby, going out there — I haven’t done it before. So, my video is pretty good; probably better than I played all day, so I’m trying to get better every day.”

There well may be a big uptick in the popularity of the sport when all is said and done with the Disney restart, as it seems one of the more popular recreational activities being dabbled in by the team and league more broadly.

And while at least a few Celtics may agree with novelist Harry Leon Wilson when he said over a century ago (via Teed Up) “golf … seems to have too much walking for a good game and just enough game to spoil a good walk,” the itch seems to have taken hold with Tatum at least.

We’ll see if it gets to anyone else in the ‘bubble’.

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Video games, golf, very big bikes: how the Celtics relax in the bubble

Reserve Boston Celtics guard Brad Wanamaker related how the Celtics were making use of their downtime after practice on Wednesday.

The Boston Celtics have been finding ways to unwind after practice, and some of them are not what you would expect.

Reserve guard Brad Wanamaker related how he was using his free time in the Disney ‘bubble’ while speaking with reporters at the post-practice media availability session; “I’ve just been relaxing in my room,” he said, “for the most part.”

“I’m playing a video game, [and] talking to a lot of family members over this whole pandemic,” added the Pitt product.

“I was able to catch up with all the family and friends that I haven’t been talking to as much I would liked to have to. But I’ve been chilling; [I] went to the pool yesterday with a couple of guys for about five hours [and] went on a bike ride with [Daniel] Theis one night, so I’ve been trying to make the best of it.”

And it wasn’t just 6-foot-3 Wanamaker or 6-foot-9 Theis riding bicycles; 7-foot-5 center Tacko Fall ran into them on a bike of his own at one point, captured by teammate Vincent Poirier.

“It was funny because he rode up on us when we were at the pool and we were like, ‘Tacko’s big ass [is] on the bike … So it was funny when he pulled up, but it was great to see him out there trying to enjoy himself, too, though.”

While the Celtics cannot leave the Disney NBA campus for the duration of their stay without special permission, there’s a host of activities to keep them busy.

Several Celtics, including Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker and Grant Williams have been taking up golf, and several other Boston players have been sighted going in for extra work on their shot in the evenings, according to head coach Brad Stevens.

With the first scrimmage of the restart scheduled just eight days away, they’d better get in their rest and relaxation in while they can; games against other teams will quickly be followed by seeding games, and the playoffs not long after.

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WATCH: Best of Boston’s 2019-20 so far – Daniel Theis blocks

Boston Celtics center Daniel Theis has sent more shots into the stands this season than you probably realize — see his best blocks here.

By now it is no secret to opposing teams who the frontcourt fulcrum is for the Boston Celtics, even if there are still a number of national writers who can be forgiven if they missed Daniel Theis’ critical role for the franchise on both ends of the court.

And the reason the Saltzigger native is so easy to miss isn’t his 6-foot-9 stature, but how quietly efficient he is at sealing off defenders, or finding an open teammate on the perimeter.

Theis has sneakily become one of the best screeners in the NBA while fitting seamlessly into the Celtics high-powered offense, able to knock down an open jumper when needed, but never demanding the ball.

And perhaps the sneakiest part of his game of all has been his 1.3 blocks per game he’s registered this season, many coming in space as part of Boston’s switchy defensive rotations.

Watch the video embedded above to see all of the German center’s best blocks of the 2019-20 season so far; we’re well inside of two weeks away from seeing some new ones from Theis, knock on wood.

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