Boston Celtics: Daniel Theis the unsung hero all season

The Boston Celtics are a much better team when Daniel Theis is on the floor. He proved that on Friday night by having a career game in Minnesota when the team needed him the most.

The Boston Celtics got a steal when they re-signed Daniel Theis to a modest team-friendly two year, $10 million contract over the summer. He has easily been the most consistent and reliable player on the Celtics this season.

After losing Al Horford and Aron Baynes during the summer and then obtaining Enes Kanter, nobody predicted this incredible season coming from Theis. He has started in 47 of the 48 games that he’s been available this season and is averaging 8.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game so far.

In the team’s first game back from the All-Star break, Theis had a career night in the C’s victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. In a game without Kemba Walker, he stepped up and logged in a double-double of 25 points and 16 rebounds in 26 minutes.

Also in a game that featured Kanter for only nine minutes, Theis entered foul trouble early in the third quarter on Friday night in Minnesota. But he was aware enough down the stretch to play more mindful and still finish out the game strong.

The third-year German product is unselfish and provides all the dirty work for the Celtics when he is on the floor. He does what he needs to do to get the job done, which usually results in him sacrificing his body and getting beat up most of the time.

"“Theis played great. He doesn’t always get a lot of attention. But he’s very vital to our team’s success night-in and night-out and capable of big games like this.” – Jayson Tatum, per A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston"

What’s impressive about Theis’ game is his ability to create plays for his teammates. He has created a profound type of box-out move that usually starts as a high screen and then ends with him closing off a defender in the paint, all while opening up a lane directly to the basket.

On the other end of the floor, Theis is as solid as they come on defense. Similar to Marcus Smart, he makes winning plays that don’t always show up in the box score at the end of a game.

Theis can space the floor, box-out for rebounds, and handle the mid-play switches that sometimes results in him having to defend a shooter that typically would be considered an unfavorable matchup. He has easily become one of the most important players on the team.

After his career game on Friday night, there was a lot of praise going around for Theis. But during his post-game interview, he had all the praise in the world for his teammates and said that the Celtics can be a deep scoring team.

"“It shows how good and deep our team is. We have guys who can score 20 points every night; Kemba [Walker], JT [Jayson Tatum], Jaylen [Brown], Gordon [Hayward], [Marcus] Smart… today I was in that mix, too.” – Daniel Theis, per A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston"

In the same interview, he also went on to say that he doesn’t necessarily care about scoring as much as he does playing defense.

"“At the end, everybody knows I don’t care about scoring. I care about the defensive part; we have to get better on defense, we gave up a lot of stuff.” – Daniel Theis, per A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston"

Believe it or not, Theis is proving to be the glue of this Celtics team. He needs to be healthy and active for the Boston Celtics to remain competitive and to continue to win games during the second half of the season as they head towards the playoffs.