Derrick White, most underrated player in the NBA?

[RoyceDa59]

Celtics are just ridiculously stacked.

[Riverwalk2021]

Borderline All-Star who is improving every year. White is better than Caruso and Reaves because he is good to elite at everything. On a given night, he can score 25, be the main facilitator, and dominate on the defensive end. Beyond counting stats, his cutting, screening, and quick decision-making make an offense flow a lot better. He takes charges and alters shots at the rim or contesting jump shooters which don't show up on that stats page either.

[CoP]

My favorite Celtic. He's arguably been the team's best overall player this season. JB and KP right there with him.

For a mid team, the Cs have a lot of quality players.

They aight

[Jaqua92]

Dude makes the most timely shots too.

I had to hear about the hyperbole for years about Marcus Smarts so called “winning plays” but watching White? Those are what winning plays looks like.

Marcus Smart was the biggest brainwashing con in the history of Boston sports.

[robbie84]

White is just so damn consistent. He also gets better and better every season.
I don't think he's an All Star but he's a huge reason why the Celtics are favorites this year. With Brown and Tatum garnering so much attention, White and Porzingis just flourish.
Incredibly under rated defender too by most NBA fans.

[SerialChiller]

Good for him finally shaving his head...just saw a highlight of him for first time this year as I don't follow Celtics. Definitely a key player for them though and caused the Heat a lot of problems last year in the playoffs.

[bisme37]

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[theFireBlanket]

Pop should've sent Bud, not Ime, Derrick White. I've felt that way since it happened.

We'll take Dame though.

[RodyTur10]

The Celtics currently have the best record, but not enough is talked about their second most important player: Derrick White.

Derrick White is 14th in EPM, 19th in EW, 17th in BPM, 16th in WS, 20th in VORP and 4th in +/- in the league!
By all accounts White should be an All Star based on his performances.

White is an amazingly allround basketball player. He's good with on-ball and off-ball defense. He's a good passer, good driver and a good shooter. And all of this combined with a high BBIQ. There's no weakness in his game. Rare.

sources: https://dunksandthrees.com/epm and https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2024_advanced.html

A short week later, my guy is climbing up after some glorious performances, Derrick White is now 9th in EPM(+5), 15th in EW(+4), 13th in BPM(+4), 12th in WS(+4), 14th in VORP(+6) and 4th in +/- in the league. Some stats have weird outliers, but the top 30 lists for EW and VORP show White in some good company. Again, sources: https://dunksandthrees.com/epm and https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2024_advanced.html

Another update, after another very solid performance against the Lakers 18 points and 11 assists. Derrick White is now 7th in EPM(+2), 12th in EW(+3), 10th in BPM(+3), 13th in WS(-1), 13th in VORP(+1) and 3rd(+1) in +/- in the league.

Top 10 in EPM (Estimated Plus-Minus)

1. Joel Embiid
2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
3. Nikola Jokic
4. Giannis Antetokounmpo
5. Luka Doncic
6. LeBron James
7. Derrick White
8. Anthony Davis
9. Chet Holmgren
10. Kawhi Leonard

11-20 (Haliburton, Young, Fox, Lillard, Barnes, Curry, Mitchell, Booker, Durant, Maxey)

Top 10 in BPM (Box Plus-Minus)

1. Nikola Jokic
2. Joel Embiid
3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
4. Luka Doncic
5. LeBron James
6. Tyrese Haliburton
7. Giannis Antetokounmpo
8. Scottie Barnes
9. Stephen Curry
10. Derrick White

11-20 (Sengün, Leonard, Harden, Mitchell, Durant, Davis, Sabonis, Fox, Porzingis, Holmgren)

sources: https://dunksandthrees.com/epm and https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2024_advanced.html

[ROballer]

He's the best Celtic fantasy wise at least.


In real world, Tatum takes the cake as the guy but White is definitely having a better season than Brown. It's not even close really, raw points per game don't mean ****.


His overall line looks a little bit underwhelming for the casual fan because he had a rather slow-ish start, the Celtics needed to figure out how to incorporate 2 new starters in the lineup + White himself, who was coming off the bench last year.
Plus he had a kid on the way.

After his child was born and missed a game to be with the mother at birth, he's averaging 18.7/4.1/5.7/1.5/1.5 for the past 15 games(Celtics are 12-3) on 51/43/90 shooting splits. While arguably being a DPOY candidate.


He's definitely an All-star. If you think the Celtics having 4 All-Stars is too much, Brown should be the one missing the cut, not White.

[Charlesareed]

Borderline All-Star who is improving every year. White is better than Caruso and Reaves because he is good to elite at everything. On a given night, he can score 25, be the main facilitator, and dominate on the defensive end. Beyond counting stats, his cutting, screening, and quick decision-making make an offense flow a lot better. He takes charges and alters shots at the rim or contesting jump shooters which don't show up on that stats page either.

Yes he is he’s like both them mixed although caurso is better defensively Derrick white does everything else and give you solid defense he’s the X factor for the Celtics along with jrue Holiday playing on the spurs helped white alot

[MalonesElbows]

He immediately stood out as a player from the first time I watched him in summer league way back when

[JimmyFromNz]

Why isn't he talked about more?
He's scoring 15 points. Getting 5 assist, and 3 boards.

He should be an allstar? Give me a break. Every season some lower usage player tops out a bunch of advanced statistic categories, especially on good teams.

Put Boban Marjanovic in the HOF then maybe we'll talk about Derrick White.

That reads like something from the early 2000s era of internet takes.

Refer to 3 boxscore categories (incorrectly) and pretend that's all there is to it.

Why mention usage - he's at 18.9% 4th and the lead ball handler/initiator. Maybe then consider the elite efficiency he's doing this all on.

Why not mention defense, one entire side of the game ? A defensive all nba 2nd team guard last year and a lock this year. The best rim protecting guard in the league, and elite pick n roll option who can switch pretty much anything beyond an Embiid physique.

Of course a 'rising tide' benefits players, that's not a justification to ignore the blatantly obvious fact Derrick's progress as a lead playmaker this year has put this team well above sea level...

He's been the 2-3rd best player on the best team (record wise at least) in the league. He's going to get serious all star consideration.

The problemit appears is that you've just gone 'huh'? to the thread title, and quickly googled an espn stats profile to back up what in reality is just an opinion based on having clearly not watched basketball games. I mean that's fine, but hard to take seriously.

[Godymas]

i'm gonna go ahead and say it

Derrick White is the best player in the league that isn't a star player

and you'd probably take him over a ton of stars still, he just isn't a first option type of guy

he's the best role player starter in the league

Derrick White is so good, I'd honestly consider taking all of the money Jaylen Brown makes and breaking it out into 2-3 amazing guys instead in a trade

[PierceFan4ever]

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[og15]

Borderline All-Star who is improving every year. White is better than Caruso and Reaves because he is good to elite at everything. On a given night, he can score 25, be the main facilitator, and dominate on the defensive end. Beyond counting stats, his cutting, screening, and quick decision-making make an offense flow a lot better. He takes charges and alters shots at the rim or contesting jump shooters which don't show up on that stats page either.

Yes he is he’s like both them mixed although caurso is better defensively Derrick white does everything else and give you solid defense he’s the X factor for the Celtics along with jrue Holiday playing on the spurs helped white alot

Spurs also chose him for the type of player he was.

In college he averaged 18/4/4 on 51/40/81 with 1.2 stl and 1.4 blk

[SNPA]

i'm gonna go ahead and say it

Derrick White is the best player in the league that isn't a star player

and you'd probably take him over a ton of stars still, he just isn't a first option type of guy

he's the best role player starter in the league

Derrick White is so good, I'd honestly consider taking all of the money Jaylen Brown makes and breaking it out into 2-3 amazing guys instead in a trade

Kings GM will be ready when that call comes.

[AleksandarN]

Tatum is a loser. Cares more about stats than his teammates. Did White dirty

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[RodyTur10]

i'm gonna go ahead and say it

Derrick White is the best player in the league that isn't a star player

and you'd probably take him over a ton of stars still, he just isn't a first option type of guy

he's the best role player starter in the league

Derrick White is so good, I'd honestly consider taking all of the money Jaylen Brown makes and breaking it out into 2-3 amazing guys instead in a trade

Kings GM will be ready when that call comes.

The first time such could be considered is this summer. Brown for Barnes, Huerter and Murray makes some sense.

[SNPA]

i'm gonna go ahead and say it

Derrick White is the best player in the league that isn't a star player

and you'd probably take him over a ton of stars still, he just isn't a first option type of guy

he's the best role player starter in the league

Derrick White is so good, I'd honestly consider taking all of the money Jaylen Brown makes and breaking it out into 2-3 amazing guys instead in a trade

Kings GM will be ready when that call comes.

The first time such could be considered is this summer. Brown for Barnes, Huerter and Murray makes some sense.

No Murray. Picks, other players. Kings have guys that fit Boston real well if they ever did decide to go this route.