Will the Celtics rely more on Luke Kornet or Neemias Queta at center?

After three good performances to start the team’s west coast tour, Neemias Queta played over Luke Kornet for the first time this season.

When Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet are healthy, Boston’s bench unit will consist of Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet, according to head coach Joe Mazzulla. Then Luke Kornet got hurt, and when he returned from his adductor strain in Los Angeles for the Lakers’ Christmas Day game, he sat on the bench as Neemias Queta stepped up for a first-half stint at backup center.

Queta lasted six minutes in the first half, playing alongside Al Horford in a pairing that saw success through 40 minutes. Queta didn’t shoot, fouled twice and only returned for 26 seconds in the third quarter. Kornet did not play at all as the Celtics closed with Horford logging the first four minutes of the fourth before Kristaps Porzingis returned for the final eight.

Queta failed to build on his three stellar showings to begin the road trip, but his appearance on Monday reignited the depth center debate from the preseason. Boston faces the Pistons and Raptors on a back-to-back on Thursday and Friday, with Horford inevitably sitting the second game and Porzingis historically splitting the games, too. Whether Boston returns to Kornet or pushes Queta again will be telling for where the Celtics view the position turning ahead of a deadline where big man could emerge as a need.

Multiple reports to close the calendar year have signaled the Celtics’ interest in front court help. Centers like Isaiah Stewart and Kelly Olynyk or versatile wings who could help at the four when the front court plays short-handed. With the first two players too expensive to acquire without overhauling a largely successful bench unit,

Queta, who averaged 10.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game against the Warriors, Kings and Clippers, and Horford combined to outscore opponents by 30.9 points per 100 possessions as a two-man lineup. Even factoring in his -10 minutes against the Lakers and 50% shooting around the rim, Queta remains +16.3 per 100 through his first nine Celtics appearances.

Kornet, by contrast, has worked a +1.2 individual net rating through 17 games and +3.4 playing next to Horford in 44 minutes. That difference alone likely changed minds inside the Celtics’ coaching staff, alongside Queta’s astonishing 21.8 OREB% that would edge out Mitchell Robinson for the top mark in the league if he qualified.

“It seems to me, the game comes easy to him,” Horford noticed late in training camp. “Especially around the basket. He has a really good feel for finishing and rebounding, and being there in the right place, right time. That’s been the impressive part to me. He’s a bigger guy, he can finish pretty well at the rim. That’s been the most impressive.”

The Kornet versus Queta question resembles arguments for Daniel Theis and a young Robert Williams III between 2020-21. Brad Stevens relied on Theis, often in tandem with Tristan Thompson, despite flashes of athletic and defensive brilliance from Williams III that season because Theis proved more reliable play-to-play. Danny Ainge ultimately traded Theis at the deadline, thrusting Williams III into more action and coincidentally acquiring Kornet from Chicago for his first stint with the Celtics.

After, Kornet signed with Maine and spent most of 2022 developing there, he entered 2022-23 as the team’s depth center and fared well despite the team adding Mike Muscala and Blake Griffin as insurance. They didn’t bring added depth into camp this year, even after trading Williams III for Jrue Holiday, in a stronger endorsement of Kornet as a depth center. He’s currently older and in a better place than Queta as a finisher, passer and positional defender, and while Queta brings better physicality and rebounding, he also surprised as a screener this month. Queta had shot 13-for-15 in the preseason with 4.7 RPG.

That proved enough for the Celtics to plan to keep Queta, initially a two-way signing, with the NBA roster once Maine’s training camp began. A stress fracture, however, derailed the start of his season that originated from his Summer League stint in July with the Kings and he missed the Celtics’ first 12 games. Kornet averaged 4.0 PPG, 3.6 RPG and 11.6 minutes across nine appearances over that stretch, only attempting 2.1 shots per game. He fared slightly better before straining his adductor in layup lines against the Cavs, missing six games.

Perhaps the strongest advantage Kornet holds over Queta, for now, is his active roster contract. Queta can’t play in the postseason unless the Celtics sign him to a standard contract in the coming months, which will carry a luxury tax hit and fill Boston’s only open roster spot if they don’t make any moves first. That feels inevitable, but Queta has also mentioned that he’s had highs-and-lows in his continued foot injury recovery. He told CLNS Media/CelticsBlog he’s closing in on 100%, but the Celtics could have pause until then.

The easy answer in the argument for now is utilizing both, or neither if Boston wants to tighten its rotation in certain games, as they inevitably will when healthy in the playoffs. The Celtics can also play smaller, as they did with Kornet and Porzingis down against the Magic. That game allowed Oshae Brissett to reemerge as a rebounding and slashing four, now posting a +5.4 net rating in 32 minutes next to Horford. Boston has to ask itself what it wants from its depth center, whether stability, a change of pace or insurance in case of injury. Despite visible strides from both players, an addition might need to fill the latter role.

“We’ll continue to look at it,” Stevens said before training camp. “We’ll see how it all looks. We’ve had the real benefit of watching a packed gym for the last few weeks, in small groups and some open gyms that guys have played. We’ve been really encouraged and impressed by some of the people that people don’t talk about on our team a lot. We’ll see how that all plays itself out, but we’ve talked about trying to balance that.”