When Tristan Thompson joined the Boston Celtics this past offseason, it meant that a role change was coming for Daniel Theis.
The German big man had played the majority of his NBA minutes at the 5 up to that point, but the Celtics believed that they could utilize his versatility by sliding him over to the 4, complementing his modern-day big man skillset with Thompson's traditional style of playing center.
It proved to be a challenging adjustment at first, as it took a few weeks for Theis to get used to his new responsibilities of playing a power forward/center hybrid depending on when he was sharing the court with Thompson. But over the past month or so he has really found a groove.
In his first eight appearances, Theis averaged 6.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, which was a bit of a dip from his 2019-20 averages of 9.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. But over his last 15 contests, he’s seen those numbers jump to 11.3 PPG and 5.3 RPG.
“Definitely an adjustment for me from being just strictly a 5 and setting pick-and-rolls, and now to be basically a spacer, a cutter, it took me a little while to adjust to,” Theis said following Thursday afternoon’s shootaround at the Auerbach Center ahead of his team’s matchup with the Toronto Raptors. “But I think I figured it out pretty well now.”
Theis has especially figured things out shooting-wise. Through his first nine games, he shot just 20 percent (4-of-20) from 3-point range, which was the lowest individual mark on the Celtics during that span. However, over his last 14 games, he has shot an incredible 65.5 percent (19-of-29) from deep, which has been not only by far the best mark on the team, but also the best mark among all NBA players who have attempted at least two threes per game during that same span.
Theis’ efficiency inside the arc has also been off the charts. For the season as a whole, he’s leading the league in both 2-point percentage (67.4 percent) and effective field-goal percentage (68.4 percent).
With Theis shooting at such a high mark, opposing defenses have had to be on their toes more than ever when he’s on the court. Defenders can no longer afford to sag off of him when he’s camped out beyond the arc, which in turn creates more space for Boston’s offense and more opportunities for all of its other sharpshooters and slashers to do their thing.
“Obviously it’s way easier if I make shots because defenses will respect me more,” said Theis, who is coming off of a career-best 5-of-6 long-range shooting performance against the first-place Utah Jazz. “And then being a spacer helps, so our guys can come downhill and get easy buckets.”
Thursday night’s opponent, the Raptors, had no issue containing Theis during the first matchup of their season series on Jan. 4, when they held him to just two points and three rebounds. But that was just the eighth game of the season, and, as mentioned above, it was after that point when Theis began to turn things around offensively.
This is a different version of Daniel Theis than the one who took the court at the beginning of the season, or really at any other point during his Celtics career. He seems to have fully adjusted into his new hybrid role, and his offensive versatility and shooting prowess has developed into one of Boston’s greatest strengths.
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