Neemias Queta threes might not just be a preseason experiment

It’s not uncommon to see Neemias Queta practicing threes out on the TD Garden parquet before Boston Celtics home games — though the average fan may be asking why he’s even working on that part of his game. The Portuguese big man has done the majority of his scoring in the NBA around the basket in catch-and-finish spots.

He’s attemped just 11 total three-pointers (one make) across the first five seasons of his professional career. This year, though, it might be #DifferentHere for Queta. Through two preseason appearances this fall, he’s already fired up four — five if you include a make from the corner with his right big toe (not to be confused with Al Horford’s left big toe) on the line.

Wednesday’s win over the Charlotte Hornets featured three of those four long-range tries (and the long-two). Seeing Queta try to lean into a floor-spacing role was interesting. He looked both comfortable and confident taking the shots when the opportunities were there.

The first and last attempts came within the flow of the offense. Queta was open, a teammate found him, and he squared up with confidence. Even though both attempts came up short, they were still fine misses and were on line. The middle attempt… well, that came out of a broken play and the result reflected that.

What may seem like a small development that has yet to pay any real dividends for Neemi or the Celtics has been years in the making.

“I think it’s just over the years, just after practice, just getting the reps and getting getting more consistent in general with the form, the way I stick the landing, all that type of stuff makes a difference,” Queta explained after the win. “I think [the coaching staff has] seen over the years that I got better at it. It’s a two-way street on the trust. I’ve been making more of them during the offseason. They trust me to shoot them. I just gotta make them.”

The sheer amount of thought and effort that goes into adding a skill like three-point shooting into an NBA player’s game is incredible. Think about it. Queta can probably make 70 of 100 attempts in an open gym (the number could very well be higher, but let’s set this as the baseline). If any of us mere mortals did that ourselves, we’d tell all of our friends about the insane shooting clinic we’d just put on. If we saw Queta do it, we’d be questioning why he isn’t getting these chances in games.

“I want to empower him to take his game to a different level,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said of Queta potentially getting more opportunities to shoot from distance. “At the same time, we have to fight to get the best shots at the right time.”

I guess the simple answer is that there are probably multiple guys on the floor at all times that would make upwards of 85 out of 100. So, it’s tough to justify taking shots away from them to let Queta try and space the floor.

If the Celtics can find a place for it, however, letting No. 88 let it fly once or twice a game might wind up being valuable to them.

“I think it can help us,” he said of potentially taking more threes throughout the season. “It can be a weapon that we can use at certain points. And obviously, it’s not going to derail my attention span too often and take away from things that I do best on the court, but we can see what we use as a weapon and a strength.”

This isn’t the first time Queta’s featured threes in his game. When he led Portugal to the nation’s first-ever knockout stage berth at last summer’s EuroBasket tournament, the big man took seven total threes and made two of them. He averaged 15.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game across six appearances. Shooting threes certainly didn’t take away from his production.

Whether or not it’ll become part of his role with the Celtics in the regular season has yet to be seen, but Mazzulla seemed open to it in the right spots.

”I think as we open that up a little bit, it’s an ongoing conversation about timing,“ he added. ”When’s it a good shot? When’s it not? What that looks like? It could be different depending upon what the lineup is, what the matchups are, etc. But at the end of the day he’s a guy that continues to get better and better, and it’s a space that we’ll look to to to see how he can take advantage of it.“