Move Over, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Derrick White Might Be the Celtics’ Most Essential Player.
White is the glue that holds the Boston Celtics together and allows Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porziņģis to shine.
When Derrick White arrived in Boston via trade at the 2022 deadline, the reaction was — how should we say? — mixed.
Hoops nerds tended to endorse the addition, as White had developed into a cult favorite among statheads for his rock-solid metrics, even while his San Antonio Spurs were sliding away from their dynasty era. Celtics fans were less enthusiastic, though, questioning why the team gave up a first-round pick and another pick swap for a player with a career average of 11.5 points per game. And even White himself was surprised to be on the move heading into deadline day, he would later admit.
But as we near the two-year anniversary of the trade, it’s clear that time has proven the Celtics right — and proven White to be a much more valuable player than anyone had predicted.
In fact, White has become perhaps the NBA’s foremost Glue Guy this season, a player who makes his presence felt without needing to fill up the box score with gaudy stats. Among players who’ve logged at least 20 games and are averaging fewer than 20 points per contest, White is by far the league’s leader in Estimated RAPTOR Wins Above Replacement:
White is in such a class unto himself among low-scoring stars that the difference between his WAR and that of No. 2 Fred VanVleet is the same as the difference between VanVleet and No. 14 Khris Middleton. It’s fair to say that nobody in the league right now makes more of an impact by doing the little things than White.
Let’s start with his efficiency. It’s always a positive when one of your starting guards is making 56% of his 2-pointers, 41% of his 3-pointers and 90% of his free throws — a 55-40-90 club of which White is currently the NBA’s only member. Add in his ability to co-distribute along with the Celtics’ other primary passers (he leads the team in total assists) and a surprising propensity for disrupting opposing shots — White easily leads all players listed at 6-foot-4 or shorter in block rate, at 3.3% — and White’s high value begins to make sense. He does almost everything on the court at an above-average level.
But that’s understating why White is so good for the specific role he occupies right now in Boston: The Celtics are a team almost uniquely suited to maximize White’s all-around talents.
With three other starters (Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porziņģis) boasting a higher usage rate, White doesn’t need to be a primary option. Instead, he can focus on making the most of his opportunities, particularly in clutch moments. For instance, only four players have made more 3-pointers when the game was within one score during the fourth quarter or overtime this season, according to SportRadar. Playing alongside Tatum, one of the game’s new wave of prototype tall ball-handlers, as well as veteran point guard Jrue Holiday, White doesn’t need to always initiate the offense, either — freeing him up to spot up off the ball for catch-and-shoot chances. And at the other end of the floor, the five-time All-Defensive selection Holiday has been a perfect backcourt-mate for White. (Coach Joe Mazzulla has even had the pair applying full-court pressure at times this season.)
In turn, White is the glue that has held all of Boston’s other pieces together most strongly. He leads all Celtics with at least 200 minutes in plus-minus per 100 possessions (+15.3) and the team is an astonishing 14.9 points of net rating better with White in the game versus on the bench. In other words, the best team in the NBA by net rating becomes just another average squad without White:
The big question is whether White’s impact can continue to hold up in the playoffs for a team that currently ranks as NBA title favorites. Roll things back a year, and as they were making their run to the Eastern Conference finals, last season’s Celtics were much better with the backcourt combo of Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon on the floor than with White. In fact, White had the team’s second-worst on-versus-off differential in the postseason.
That was a very different version of the Celtics, though. Not only are both Smart and Brogdon on different teams now, but Boston’s current rotation mix seems to fit together better — something the Celtics are hoping leads to big things in the spring. And among all the other star names they’re counting on to make that happen, White might be as important to that effort as anyone.
Filed under: NBA