The Celtics continued reshaping their future Friday by locking up 2025-26 starting center Neemias Queta on a long-term extension.
Per ESPN, Queta agreed to a fully guaranteed four-year, $56 million extension that begins in the 2027-28 season, as Boston had already exercised his $2.67 million team option for the upcoming campaign.
The Celtics, in doing so, reinforce their frontcourt just days after agreeing to terms with former Knicks center Mitchell Robinson and in the aftermath of the blockbuster trade that sent Jaylen Brown to the 76ers.
Robinson’s deal locks him in for three years and $47 million.
Queta, 26, established himself last season as one of the league’s better rim protectors and interior defenders, playing a vital role in Boston’s surprising No. 2 seed heading into the 2026 playoffs.
During the 2025-26 season, the 7-footer averaged 10.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.3 blocks while shooting 65.3 percent from the field across 76 games.
Queta also finished fourth in NBA Most Improved Player voting this past season.
Robinson arrives after spending the first eight seasons of his career in New York City, where he was one of the league’s premier offensive rebounders and rim protectors when healthy.
The 7-foot Robinson, whom the Knicks selected in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft, appears to be the biggest name the defending champions will lose following their first title in 53 years, after the team retained Jose Alvarado, Mohamed Diawara and Landry Shamet — all on team-friendly deals.
But with the Knicks’ unwillingness to approach the second apron and deal with the severe cap penalties, Robinson was an expected casualty coming off his best regular season since 2022-23.
The move for Boston could ensure that the Celtics have one of Robinson or Queta on the floor at all times, signaling a further lean into interior defense and rebounding as the team reshapes its roster in the post “Jays” era.
The Celtics stunningly dealt Brown to Philadelphia in exchange for Paul George, two first-round draft picks and two second-round selections.
The move ended Brown’s decade-long tenure in Boston despite the five-time All-Star coming off the best individual season of his career, during which he averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists — leading the offense after Jayson Tatum suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in the 2025 playoffs.
Brown has been a lightning rod publicly due to his accolades — highlighted by a 2024 NBA Finals MVP and a sixth-overall regular season MVP finish in 2026 — being disregarded by some in the analytics community, where his production doesn’t often translate to eye-popping advanced numbers.
The conversation recently reached a breaking point after ESPN insider Bobby Marks said on Sirius XM that, “There’s mixed feelings about him when you talk to teams. The analytics of Jaylen Brown is not good … I had one, not an executive, but an analytics guy say, ‘Yeah, we view him as the seventh-best player on a team.’ I was like, ‘Holy crap.’”
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