Daniel Theis Has A Torn Meniscus And Is Done For The Year
Well this one fucking sucks. Losing Daniel Theis for the season as the playoffs quickly approach is not exactly how I would have drawn things up. To the casual NBA fan who doesn’t really watch a lot of Celtics basketball, you may not understand why this is such an important loss. But let me tell you, the Celtics will absolutely feel this one.
Daniel Theis was perhaps one of Ainge’s best finds to date. The only thing I knew about him was what YouTube told me and that was we were getting a player who was aggressive, good around the rim, could rebound like a 7 footer and had an outside shot. Theis then came over and was exactly as advertised. I would even go as far to say he was better than I expected. Despite being a rookie there was something different about watching Theis play. He was so consistent in his opportunities night in and night out. He was rebounding and defending at a level I did not expect a rookie to be at. He became a key rotation player for this team’s second unit.
This injury hurts because it impacts the one thing Brad cares most about. Versatility. You could ask Theis to match up against a team’s big man, but then in a situation where you were forced to switch, he had the lateral quickness to stay with forwards. Some might say he would have been important in an attempt to guard Lebron James if that day ever comes. Offensively, the second unit is losing a consistent scorer who helped you create space. You could even slide Theis in with the starters because he checked all the boxes for the position. The team now moves to guys like Monroe to fill that role and with that comes a change in offense. All the sudden the spacing is a little different moving forward, and defensively you take a hit there as well.
The Celtics lose a player who was 7th for them in Drtg, and had a DREB% of 21.7% which is second on the team. A guy that held opponents to 43/36% splits while leading his team in FG% at 54.1%. Anyway you want to slice it, Theis brought major value.
Could this mean that Yabu is finally going to get his chance? It sure looks like it considering this team is pretty thin now with switchable bigs. Those asking for more Greg Monroe are going to get your wish and I sure as shit hope he’s ready. On the surface you wouldn’t think that a player like Theis would make all that much of a difference, but given this team and his role, it’s really more impactful than you think. It also just sucks because Theis was having such a solid season and really bought in. The team didn’t think it was much, maybe just a knee to knee thing, and it turned out to be the worst possible outcome. Fuck that.
So get well soon Daniel Theis, you had a great year
