Celtics breakout starter finishes 4th in voting for NBA award

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Celtics breakout starter finishes 4th in voting for NBA award

Souichi Terada · MassLive

Fri, Apr 24, 2026 ·

2 min read

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Neemias Queta was just on the outside looking in when it comes to the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. Queta finished fourth in voting for the award after enjoying a breakout season as the Celtics ’ starting center .

The Hawks’ Nickeil Alexander-Walker won the award, getting 66 first-place votes for a total of 396 points. Pistons All-Star big man Jalen Duren finished second, earning 23 first-place votes on his way to 254 points. Trail Blazers All-Star Deni Avdija was third with seven first-place votes and 135 points.

Queta followed outside the top-3 vote getters , though he wasn’t close to them. He got six second-place votes and 23 third-place votes for a total of 41 points. So he was a bit behind the top-3 guys.

Regardless, Queta still enjoyed a successful season. While there were questions ahead of the season on who would be Boston ’s consistent starting center, Queta emerged as one of the better bigs in the league. He averaged 10.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 76 games (75 starts) for the Celtics this season.

Queta said it was a goal of his ahead of the season to aim for the Most Improved Player award. While he didn’t gather much national buzz, Queta’s emergence was a huge reason why the Celtics went 56-26 during the regular season. He’ll be part of Boston’s long-term plans going forward after starting with the C’s on a two-way contract a few years ago.

“I feel like I made a good case for it,” Queta said April 5. “But like we said, that’s stuff that we can’t control. At the end of the day, I’m just just helping the team win, and that’s my main goal. Obviously, that’s secondary, the most improved. But I’m just glad I’m helping my teammates getting to the spot we’re at right now. And whether I win it or don’t win it, it’s not gonna change my perspective and the approach I take every night.”

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