Scout: Daniel Theis May Be Most Underrated Player in NBA

[TheBullsDynasty]

Top 25? Really?

Is that really a stretch? He made the all star team, was 18th in PIPM, 30th in RPM, 22nd in RAPTOR, 13th in VORP, 21st in BPM. 16/10/5 while also being elite defensively, I don’t think I could name 25 guys who were better this season. Just because he doesn’t score a ton doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a huge impact on the game.

1) Giannis
2) Lebron
3) Kawhi
4) Harden
5) Luka
6) Jokic
7) Davis
8) Lillard
9) Tatum
10) Jimmy B
11) Embiid
12) KAT
13) Paul
14) Simmons
15) George
16) Gobert
17) Mitchell
18) Kyrie
19) Lowry
20) Beal
21) Westbrook
22) Trae Young
23) Kemba
24) Booker
25) Ingram
26) Brown
27) Ja
28) Zion
29) Siakam
30) Vuc

Bam, for me, is in that next tier of guys: including in no particular order
FVV
Jrue
Sabonis
Hayward
SAG
McCollum
Fox
KP
Collins
Lavine
Russell
Murray
Brogdon

When you consider Bam's defense and playmaking, he is a better overall player than Vuc, Siakam, Zion, Ja and Ingram. I would also take him over Brown, Kemba and Trae but I'm ok with it if others don't.

Bam is a much better player than what his stats might suggest. He could easily score ~20 ppg, but he is a team player first like Jimmy Butler. These guys don't care about stats, they care about winning.

He is great in the post, his mid-range jumper is wet, and he is a very good passer out of the post. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes the jump to a top 15 player next season. He is a very hardworking player.

[100proof]

Is that really a stretch? He made the all star team, was 18th in PIPM, 30th in RPM, 22nd in RAPTOR, 13th in VORP, 21st in BPM. 16/10/5 while also being elite defensively, I don’t think I could name 25 guys who were better this season. Just because he doesn’t score a ton doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a huge impact on the game.

1) Giannis
2) Lebron
3) Kawhi
4) Harden
5) Luka
6) Jokic
7) Davis
8) Lillard
9) Tatum
10) Jimmy B
11) Embiid
12) KAT
13) Paul
14) Simmons
15) George
16) Gobert
17) Mitchell
18) Kyrie
19) Lowry
20) Beal
21) Westbrook
22) Trae Young
23) Kemba
24) Booker
25) Ingram
26) Brown
27) Ja
28) Zion
29) Siakam
30) Vuc

Bam, for me, is in that next tier of guys: including in no particular order
FVV
Jrue
Sabonis
Hayward
SAG
McCollum
Fox
KP
Collins
Lavine
Russell
Murray
Brogdon

I’d take him over everyone on the bottom list easily, and over Ingram, Trae, Jaylen, Westbrook, Vuc, Siakam as well.

I just value the overall impact he brings over the scoring of other guys. Impact stats love him for the same reason. I’ll stop derailing the Theis thread now lol.

fair enough!

[Fencer reregistered]

Theis is so overlooked he can't get discussed in his own thread.

[Feed Your Head]

Theis is so overlooked he can't get discussed in his own thread.

This post is perfect.

[100proof]

Is that really a stretch? He made the all star team, was 18th in PIPM, 30th in RPM, 22nd in RAPTOR, 13th in VORP, 21st in BPM. 16/10/5 while also being elite defensively, I don’t think I could name 25 guys who were better this season. Just because he doesn’t score a ton doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a huge impact on the game.

1) Giannis
2) Lebron
3) Kawhi
4) Harden
5) Luka
6) Jokic
7) Davis
8) Lillard
9) Tatum
10) Jimmy B
11) Embiid
12) KAT
13) Paul
14) Simmons
15) George
16) Gobert
17) Mitchell
18) Kyrie
19) Lowry
20) Beal
21) Westbrook
22) Trae Young
23) Kemba
24) Booker
25) Ingram
26) Brown
27) Ja
28) Zion
29) Siakam
30) Vuc

Bam, for me, is in that next tier of guys: including in no particular order
FVV
Jrue
Sabonis
Hayward
SAG
McCollum
Fox
KP
Collins
Lavine
Russell
Murray
Brogdon

When you consider Bam's defense and playmaking, he is a better overall player than Vuc, Siakam, Zion, Ja and Ingram. I would also take him over Brown, Kemba and Trae but I'm ok with it if others don't.

Bam is a much better player than what his stats might suggest. He could easily score ~20 ppg, but he is a team player first like Jimmy Butler. These guys don't care about stats, they care about winning.

He is great in the post, his mid-range jumper is wet, and he is a very good passer out of the post. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes the jump to a top 15 player next season. He is a very hardworking player.

Here is where I am at.

I am not sure if he can "easily" score 20ppg. I mean, spo used him perfectly. perfectly. He is surrounded by shooters, and cutters and he can feast off of that consistent movement. For example, swap him and Embiid and I think Bam is a worse player than he is now because Philly's system is very different.

[TheBounceIsReal]

Theis is so overlooked he can't get discussed in his own thread.

[FlatearthZorro]

You better put some respek on my boy Edrice's name. He's not getting sonned by some 6' 4" center from Estonia.

[Lockdown504090]

His biggest weakness is rebounding and battling for position down low, bam killed Giannis and lopez, so that battle doenst bode well.

Disagree. One of his biggest strengths is the offensive boards and his ability to create extra possessions in conjunction with his teeny tiny turnover count.

you can feel however you like but he just averaged triple the offensive rebounds and double the rebounds overall from what theis got in his last series against much better competition inside.

[Soulyss]

[url]https://theathletic.com/2065490/
[/url]

The (Daniel) Theis-(Bam) Adebayo matchup? That’s sort of a wash. Theis is maybe the most underrated player in the league. He’s really good.

Do you guys agree ?

Is he way underrated on defense? yes. Is it a wash, no. Bam is very good.

Yep, Theis is a valuable rotation player and a grinder everyone likes to root for...

BAM he ain't.

[ITYSL]

Bam is obviously better but Theis is definitely underrated. Go take a look at the thread that ranked Celtics and Raptors players before their series started: viewtopic.php?t=1989000 . Everyone had Theis way, way down on the list, and behind both Gasol and Ibaka. Theis outplayed both of them, and had the best net rating of any starter on either team in the series.

Theis also matched up against Bam fairly well in the RS. The playoffs are a different animal, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Theis have a good series against Bam and keep him to about his season average in ppg with lower efficiency. A lot will depend on the whistle.

[Duke4life831]

Defensively I think theyre close to a wash. But Bam brings a lot more on the offensive end and on the boards. Theis is just a garbage man on the offensive end, while Bam is an important part to Miami's offense.

[celtics543]

Theis isn't going to cancel out Bam in any way. I like Theis and he's definitely underrated, even by most Celtics fans, but he's not on the level of Bam. And the nice part is that he shouldn't be. That'd be like saying Duncan Robinson is going to be a wash with Tatum. Robinson is a nice player but he's not on Tatum's level. The role player level guys are great at what they do but there's a reason a guy like Bam is an All Star and Theis isn't.

[celticfan42487]

Defensively I think theyre close to a wash. But Bam brings a lot more on the offensive end and on the boards. Theis is just a garbage man on the offensive end, while Bam is an important part to Miami's offense.

This is probably about right.

Bam I'd say is an athletic version of Theis on defense too though. Theis can get by in the pick and roll defense whereas if Bam is switched on a CP3/Kemba/Irving there's a real chance he can force them into a bad contested shot over him.

It's just... idk. Bam is world's better. The ability to guard on the perimeter, consistently hit mid range shots, be a lob threat, and pass like a prime Horford in a system just stands out so much.

One of those guys whos impact on the regular season is less than in a playoff series where you can gameplan against a team and where suddenly you realize he is constantly blowing up sets both on offense and defense because advantages you should have against most Centers are not only not there... but they may even be strengths for him (aside from 3 point shooting).

[Jcity08]

Theis vs Bam is going to be an interesting matchup. One thing I learned about Theis from the last series is he is good getting in positions to tip out the ball for the offensive rebound.

His defense is pretty solid too.

I think Bam is probably better on offense.

[BillTheGOAT]

Theis will turn BAM into BUM.

j/k

[Duke4life831]

Defensively I think theyre close to a wash. But Bam brings a lot more on the offensive end and on the boards. Theis is just a garbage man on the offensive end, while Bam is an important part to Miami's offense.

This is probably about right.

Bam I'd say is an athletic version of Theis on defense too though. Theis can get by in the pick and roll defense whereas if Bam is switched on a CP3/Kemba/Irving there's a real chance he can force them into a bad contested shot over him.

It's just... idk. Bam is world's better. The ability to guard on the perimeter, consistently hit mid range shots, be a lob threat, and pass like a prime Horford in a system just stands out so much.

One of those guys whos impact on the regular season is less than in a playoff series where you can gameplan against a team and where suddenly you realize he is constantly blowing up sets both on offense and defense because advantages you should have against most Centers are not only not there... but they may even be strengths for him (aside from 3 point shooting).

Statistically speaking Theis holds his own pretty well out on the perimeter. He averages about 3 defensive contests on 3s per game and holds the opponent to -3% below their average. Boston was also one of the better defensive PnR teams in the league this year. I think any big advantage Bam has with athleticism, Theis pretty much makes up with positioning and timing.

Statistically speaking their defensive impacts are pretty similar. But again the offensive side is what really separates them. For instance, Bam has had as many games scoring at least 20 points as Theis has had scoring 5 or less. Theis playoff high in assists is 3, while 3 is good enough to tie for Bam's 2nd lowest, Bam has had 5 games with at least 5 assists. Its just a completely different level of impact on the offensive end.

[ArtMorte]

Oh please, Theis has the easiest starter job in the playoffs. He is clearly the 5th best player in Boston's starting line-up, so there's zero pressure on him. If the Celtics lose, no one's going to say "Theis needed to play better", because there are no real expectations on him.

He does his job all right, but let's not glorify a filler.

[VancouverRaps]

As a Raps fan I have to agree that he has to be up there. He's one of those players you can't appreciate unless you watch the games, a lot of times his stat line looks weak/mediocre but he's playing well. He also won't show up in many YouTube highlight reels so unless you watch him play or read comments from Celtics fans, he won't really be on your radar.


It definitely helps him to be surrounded by very good perimeter/wing defenders like Smart and Brown though.

That being said, Bam is underrated/under-appreciated as well.

[SichtingLives]

LETS HAVE THEM PLAY EACH OTHER AND FIND OUT

[Curmudgeon]

It's funny, but you have one matchup of the veteran Jimmy Butler against the relative youngster Tatum, and then the matchup of the relatively young Adebayo against the grizzled veteran Theis, who broke out playing for Ulm in 2013. He subsequently won three German league championships, one with Brose Baskets and two with Bamberg, before arriving in the NBA.

No doubt the Celtics will have their hands full with Adebayo, but the Celtics have a four-headed creature at the center position, and Bam is going to have some challenges as well.