Get To Know Your 2023-24 Two-Way Players

G League basketball is nearing a return to the Portland Expo. 

Fresh off the franchise’s first postseason appearance since 2017, the Maine Celtics are back for the upcoming season and ready to take another step forward. Maine’s playoff berth was spearheaded by Two-Way players JD Davison and Mfiondu Kabengele, but this time around, the Celtics have even more reinforcement headed up I-95 from Boston. 

In the new NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement that went into place this past July, a third Two-Way contract slot was added to NBA rosters, starting this season. Instead of allowing teams to sign two players that can bounce between the NBA and G League, teams can sign up to three players to Two-Way contracts. Essentially, the rule opened 30 new contract slots for G League players to land with NBA teams while bolstering the top-end talent of every affiliate team in the process. 

Boston opted to fill all three Two-Way slots for the 23-24 season: a familiar face and two newcomers. Let’s give the newest Maine Celtics a proper introduction. 

JD Davison 

Allow JD Davison to re-introduce himself. 

The high-flying point guard is back on another Two-Way contract with Boston after the Celtics drafted him in the second round of the 2022 NBA Draft. The Letohatchee, Ala. native was a five-star recruit, one-and-done freshman with the Alabama Crimson Tide and starred at his hometown Calhoun High School prior to that. In a mere 18 months, Davison went from a high schooler in small-town Alabama to a rookie point guard in a Celtics organization hungry for success. 

Development is the name of the game for players and coaches in the G League, and Davison exemplified it as a rookie with Maine. Davison averaged 13.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 7.7 assists in 42 total appearances as a 20-year-old pro, and his 8.7 assists per game during the G League regular season were fourth-most in the league. As the year progressed, Davison steadily improved as a decision-maker with the ball in his hands, showing increased ability to probe defenses and slip the ball through open windows to feed his teammates easy buckets. 

“Those guys [the veteran guards in Boston], they go out there and they know their role where, at the end of the game, they know who needs the ball and the know where all the other team’s players are gonna be. They’re point guards, too, so I’m just watching those guys and learning from them.” – JD Davison 

Davison appeared in 12 games with Boston during his first year, earning extended run in the season finale against Atlanta on April 9. In that game, he recorded career-highs of 34 minutes played, 8 points, 3 assists and 2 blocks, flashing his explosive athleticism, expanding shooting range and playmaking ability. 

Though he didn’t lead the entire Summer League in assists per game like he did during his first go-round in Vegas in 2022, Davison continued to display improvements in many facets of his game. While out in the desert, the second-year point guard signed on for another Two-Way season with Boston and Maine, locking himself in as the Celtics’ point guard prospect for another year. 

Maine fans are acutely familiar with the acrobatic dunks, open-court playmaking and slick ball-handling that Davison brings to the Expo. It won’t be long before he’s throwing it down in front of a raucous Portland crowd once again – November 17^th, to be exact. 

Jay Scrubb 

Die-hard fans of the Maine Celtics and the G League might already be familiar with the scoring prowess of Jay Scrubb. 

Before turning pro, Scrubb was named an NJCAA Division I All-American twice in as many seasons at John A. Logan College, located just outside of Chicago. Coming off his second year there, during which he averaged 21.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists, Scrubb won the NABC Junior College Player of the Year in 2020. Though he originally planned to play NCAA basketball for his hometown Louisville Cardinals, his two seasons at John A. Logan were strong enough to garner significant NBA draft buzz. 

Scrubb ended up being drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers (via Brooklyn) with the 55^th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, becoming the first JUCO player to be drafted since Donta Smith in 2004 and the first-ever draftee from John A. Logan. Following the draft, Scrubb signed a two-year Two-Way contract with the Clippers, making his NBA debut on May 11, 2021. He appeared in four games (one start) and averaging 8.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1 steal in 21 minutes as a rookie in the 2020-21 season and scored a career-high 17 points against Houston on May 14, 2021. 

In the second year of his Two-Way deal, Scrubb appeared in 18 games with LA and averaged 19.8 points, 5 rebounds and 2.6 assists in the 2021-22 G League Showcase with the Agua Caliente (now Ontario) Clippers before he injured his foot in February 2022 and missed the remainder of the season. 

Later that year, Scrubb moved on from the Clippers and signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Orlando Magic. He spent time in training camp with Orlando before playing the 2022-23 season in the G League with the Lakeland Magic, where he posted 22.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists on 47.1% shooting from the field in 44 total appearances. When the Magic visited the Celtics for a back-to-back in late-January, Scrubb tallied 17 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists on night one before dropping 19 points and 8 rebounds the following evening. It’s clear that he’s already comfortable shooting in front of Celtics fans at the Expo. 

The Orlando Magic rewarded Scrubb for his performance in the G League, signing him to a Two-Way contract on March 24, 2023. He finished out the 2022-23 regular season with Orlando and put up a season-high 11 points and 5 assists against Cleveland on April 6, 2023, before cutting ties with the organization over the summer. 

As an unrestricted free agent, Scrubb agreed to play in the NBA 2K24 2023 Summer League in Las Vegas with the Boston Celtics. With Boston having two open Two-Way slots, Scrubb took full advantage of the opportunity in front of him. He averaged 14.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and buried 40% of his threes out in Vergas, earning himself a Two-Way deal with Boston for the 22-23 season. 

An electrifying scorer off the bounce that can get a bucket from anywhere on the court, Scrubb is poised to be one of Maine’s top scoring options and a potential spark off the Boston bench as a fourth-year pro. 

Neemias Queta (KNEE-me-iss KEY-tuh) 

One of the premier rim protectors and defensive anchors in the entire G League is making his way to Portland this season. 

Neemias Queta, a native of Barreiro, Portugal, began playing basketball at age 10 at the encouragement of his sister. Queta developed in the youth ranks for Barreirense before making four appearances during the 2017-18 season with Portuguese club SL Benfica B. 

As a member of the U20 Portuguese National Team at the 2019 European Championships in Portugal, he led his team to a gold medal in the tournament, averaging 14.3 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks per game en route to an all-tournament team selection. Following an accomplished youth basketball career in his home country, Queta opted to head stateside for his next test. 

Utah State was the only Division I school to give Queta an offer – surely, many Mountain West coaches grew to regret it very quickly.  

The 7-footer burst onto the scene with the Aggies, starting all 35 games played as a freshman in 2018-19, averaging 11.8 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.4 blocks to earn a clean sweep of the Mountain West Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards. In three college seasons, Queta was named Mountain West All-Conference, All-Defense and All-Tourney each year, and appeared in the NCAA Tournament alongside fellow NBAer Sam Merrill as a freshman and sophomore. 

As a junior, Queta won Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year again, along with putting up career-highs of 14.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per night in 29 games played. Queta shattered his own school record and led the nation with 97 total blocks in 2020-21, was an AP All-American Honorable Mention, a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, and won Bleacher Report’s Defensive Player of the Year award. Queta etched his name all over the school record books, leaving Utah State as the all-time leader in blocks, blocks in a season and the 10^th-leading rebounder. 

After a record-breaking junior season, Queta declared for the 2021 NBA Draft. When he was selected 39^th overall by the Sacramento Kings, Queta became the first Portugese player to ever be drafted into the NBA. Following the draft, Queta inked a Two-Way contract with the Kings. 

When Queta made his debut on Dec. 17, 2021, he made history yet again as the first Portuguese player to ever appear in an NBA game. He totaled 15 appearances with Sacramento as a rookie, scoring a career-high 11 points on Jan. 10, 2022 and averaged 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2 blocks in 26 G League games with the Stockton Kings. 

A strong rookie season earned Queta another Two-Way with the Kings for his second year, during which he played five games with Sacramento and 43 games with Stockton. The 2022-23 season served as a bit of a breakout year for Queta in the G League and is a big reason why Boston locked him into a Two-Way deal soon after he left the Kings organization in September. 

During the 22-23 season with Stockton, Queta averaged 17.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.9 blocks while shooting 68.8% from the floor, a 10% jump in efficiency from his rookie year. He participated in the inaugural G League Next Up game at NBA All-Star Weekend and earned a selection to the G League First-Team and All-Defense team. Queta’s dominance on the interior and impactful two-way play led Stockton to a No. 1 overall seed in the Western Conference for the 2023 G League Playoffs. 

This past summer, Queta played in two Summer League games with the Kings. He signed his first standard NBA contract over the summer but was waived by the Kings before quickly landing on a Two-Way with the Celtics. Brad Stevens, Jarell Christian and the rest of the Maine Celtics braintrust didn’t let Queta sit on the open market long – and for good reason. 

Celtics fans can expect Queta to be a massive interior force reminiscent of Mfiondu Kabengele and Luke Kornet in previous years. Queta will anchor the paint for Maine this season, with a real chance to contribute off the bench for Boston.