Who’s started 75% of the games for the Boston Celtics, has the 7th best true shooting percentage in the NBA, and makes your spell checker lose its mind? Why, it’s Daniel Theis! No, not this or that! Theis! It’s like going to a renaissance fair (faire for you Elizabethans) and watching Americans with bad British accents try to speak with flair and gesticulations before they start gnawing down turkey legs and swigging flagons of mead. How many flagons of mead did you have, Brayden? Theis? Is that a pronoun or a direction or a counter? None of the above! It’s the hybrid center you might want to consider for your fantasy basketball team. Let’s jump into the stats and see if this Theis tanks or thanks your team.
Availability: He’s rostered in 58% of Yahoo leagues, which by the rule of subtraction from 100 means that he’s available in 42% of leagues. Nice. That’s meaningful.
True Shooting %: Having male difficulties? I feel bad for you, Son! Try True Shoot! From Ronco, the makers of meat-themed flavor injectors. Public Enemy never needed to inject flavor. ENYWHEY. Theis is dropping a 7th best True Shooting percentage in the NBA, powered by his nearly .700 shooting from 2-point range. He couples that with a nice .389% from beyond three and a tolerable 74% from the free-throw line. Actually, he’s 17/18 from the free-throw line since January 20, which is just gravy for people needing free points from their center.
Usage: About 15% on the year. Pretty meh. But we’re looking for players that you don’t know about, so it’s not like we’re finding all-stars off the bench. Theis has maintained his playing time with Kemba Walker back in the lineup, and he’s part of all of the Celtics’ most-used lineups. He might be your backup center, but he’s getting 25-28 minutes per game with the leading cast on a team that’s 10th in offensive efficiency and looking to score more with Kemba back in the lineup. The minutes are there as is the opportunity. He’s still going to be your fantasy backup, but a backup with upside (insert your own joke there).
Peripherals: A block per game or so and seven steals in his last five games. That’s stat-padding upside. About ten points per game, which is nice. His role seems to be volatile per game, with some games more defensive-oriented and some more offensive-oriented. With such a high true shooting percentage, it shows a big upside for scoring when he’s in an offensive role.
Fantasy Takeaway: FG% is one of the most difficult categories to secure in fantasy basketball, and Theis is the 7th best shooter in the league right now. So, if you’re like me and watching your teams with KAT and Valanciunas do absolutely nothing, Theis is a nice stop-gap or pickup to bolster your FG% category. He’s scoring from near, middle, and far, and he’s giving manageable or plus value for those categories over the past five games. He’s taking an active role in the defense and posting multiple block/steal games as well. For a guy that’s available in 42% of leagues right now, it’s tough to find a better backup with solid upside than Theis. Just make sure your spell check doesn’t go wild when you’re looking him up.
What’s your take on Daniel Theis? Let me know down in the comments, and have an awesome week!
