Derrick White is ideal. So how can he get higher?

Derrick White is one of the best model of Derrick White. So how does he get higher?

White occupies an fascinating place within the NBA biosphere. He has blown by way of each ceiling daring sufficient to attempt to comprise him, going from a stable backup level guard for an nameless San Antonio Spurs workforce to a more-than-solid backup guard on the Boston Celtics to a starter, finally turning into an completely irreplaceable keystone of an NBA champion making 118 million {dollars}.

For late-blooming second spherical picks like White, that is about 20,000 occasions higher than he most likely might have hoped for. He’s beloved in Boston, fully uncontroversial and performs complimentary basketball that by no means will get in the best way and makes everybody higher. How on earth might we enhance this?

Nicely, for those who reduce by way of all of the birthday cake and confetti, White continues to be most likely the fifth most necessary participant on the Celtics. He’s a artful however generally restricted offensive participant who depends on constant three-point capturing to remain on the ground, and should outwork and out assume his opponents to beat often-daunting bodily matchups. However he’s managed to do all that with outstanding consistency, and he mainly by no means misses video games.

Complacency is thus White’s greatest problem for the 2024-25 season. The Celtics should get higher in the event that they wish to win back-to-back championships, and White is among the gamers with sufficient room to develop the place it would really make a distinction. So what might he add?

Photograph by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE through Getty Photos

Whereas not precisely the height of basketball evaluation, White might do with an expanded “bag,” as his offensive recreation is restricted to the massive three of function participant strikes: straight line drives, three pointers, and off-ball cuts. That’s not an issue, however a guard of his dimension — he’s a legit 6’4” — might do with develop a put up recreation in opposition to smaller matchups, one thing each Marcus Good and Jrue Vacation have developed to nice success. Maybe White might placed on some weight and develop into a extra bodily defender and scorer relatively than counting on his innate shot blocking means.

White can also be sneaky outdated, as whereas it doesn’t really feel like he’s been on the Celtics for that lengthy, he performed 4 years in school and many in San Antonio. He’s already 30 years outdated, and the historical past of NBA guards going into their thirties is a narrative of dimension. The larger, stockier guards can normally translate their misplaced burst right into a grown man’s bully ball, utilizing their craftiness and bodily maturity to maneuver the beanpole twenty-something round like sacks of potatoes. White might want to determine that out sooner relatively than later if he needs to enhance.

White might additionally maybe develop into a extra artistic passer, as whereas he does properly to maintain the ball transferring relatively than dribbling the air out of it like his predecessor Dennis Schröder, he’s nonetheless a “see it-throw it” passer, not essentially seeing the ground as profoundly as Jayson Tatum does. Vacation has by no means been a chief facilitator, and until the Celtics wish to actually advance the Level Tatum agenda, White might develop into the workforce’s main table-setter if he needs to be.

White’s greatest power has been his availability, which might show even deadlier than normal if White can develop into a topflight offensive participant on this league. He isn’t missing any bodily instruments, and has loads of burst and dimension. The variety of alternatives to completely run the offense has been the primary limiter to his enchancment, however we noticed the Celtics go along with a number of iterations of “Derrick White and the Bench Squad” lineups final common season. That’s one thing they need to do extra of, even whether it is only a lab experiment.

White has been every little thing the Celtics needed him to be and a lot extra. But when they wish to push their already-lofty limits, White goes to should be even cooler, and he completely will be. And I’m certain we’d all like to see that.