{"id":263851,"date":"2025-09-03T02:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/263851\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T02:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:03:09","slug":"atlantic-notes-queta-porzingis-celtics-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/263851\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Notes: Queta, Porzingis, Celtics, Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celtics alum Kristaps Porzingis<\/a>, who was traded to Atlanta this summer in a salary dump, has high praise for the only guaranteed holdover Boston center on the club\u2019s 2025\/26 roster.<\/p>\n

In a EuroBasket group play encounter this week, Porzingis led his native Latvia to a 78-62 blowout victory against Boston big man Neemias Queta<\/a>\u2018s home country of Portugal.<\/p>\n

Porzingis scored 21 points, grabbed nine boards, dished out three dimes, and blocked on shot. Queta, however, held his own against his former teammate, scoring 16 points, pulling down seven rebounds, swiping two steals, and logging an assist and a block.<\/p>\n

Per Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews<\/a>, Porzingis appreciates Queta\u2019s recent growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what I will say is Nimi has been getting better each year,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cAnd Coach [Joe] Mazzulla has been pretty tough on him. And I believe he\u2019s getting to a point where he deserves some real minutes, some real rotation minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queta will likely compete with new signings Chris Boucher<\/a> and Luka Garza<\/a> for the lion\u2019s share of minutes at the five spot.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more out of the Atlantic Division:<\/p>\n

With training camp fast approach for the new-look Celtics, Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston<\/a> has polled a panel of colleagues about their top questions and concerns ahead of Boston\u2019s 2025\/26 season. The team will be without injured All-Star forward Jayson Tatum<\/a> and former starters Porzingis and Jrue Holiday<\/a> \u2014 both of whom were traded away to save money. Third-string center Luke Kornet<\/a> left in free agency, while sixth man big Al Horford<\/a> is still unsigned. Questions about Celtics president Brad Stevens\u2018 team building, Joe Mazzulla\u2018s ability to coach up a non-championship roster, and more popped up.
\nThe Knicks are hiring former L.A. Clippers Director of International Pro Scouting Ermal Kuqo to serve as their Senior Director of Minor League Operations, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link<\/a>).
\nIn case you missed it, Sixers guard Jared McCain<\/a> has indicated<\/a> that he expects to be available when Philadelphia\u2019s training camp opens up later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celtics alum Kristaps Porzingis, who was traded to Atlanta this summer in a salary dump, has high praise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,44131,304,871,6,4986,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-263851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ermal-kuqo","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-kristaps-porzingis","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-neemias-queta","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-knicks","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115137911637969043","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}