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.
Jayson Tatum, Celtics appreciating Theis for his hard, quiet work https://t.co/I1pUlrnebS
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) February 26, 2020
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.
WATCH: Best of Boston's 2019-20 so far – Daniel Theis blocks https://t.co/XM2ycUzdvj
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) July 15, 2020
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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