Derrick White delivered an All-Star-caliber campaign this season. The seventh-year guard averaged 15.2 points, 5.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, and 1.1 steals. He set career highs in rebounds and blocks and matched his personal best in steals.
He also drilled 39.6 percent of the 6.8 threes he took, tying his highest output of the former. The only time he topped his production in the latter category was when he played in 17 games as a rookie, attempting fewer than one three per contest.
The former Colorado Buffalo’s 1.2 blocks per game are the second-most among guards in the current campaign, per NBA.com. The only individual ahead of him is six-foot-seven Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors.
He also registered the second-highest plus-minus (plus-8.5), trailing only Denver Nuggets star center and two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, per NBA.com.
Among those who made at least 73 appearances this regular season, White’s generating 122.4 points per 100 possessions. His teammate, Payton Pritchard, is the only individual manufacturing more (122.8). Applying that same 73-game filter, the top three in net rating are Sam Hauser (14.2), Pritchard (13.6 ), and White (12.5), per NBA.com.
While the six-foot-four guard is locked in on trying to help the Celtics raise Banner 18 to the TD Garden rafters, he’ll enter this summer with one season left on his contract, valued at $18.8 million, after Boston’s playoff run.
“I can’t talk about much with things that we’re not allowed to discuss until Jul. 1, but Derrick has had an amazing year,” Celtics’ president of basketball operations, Brad Stevens, said at the Auerbach Center on Tuesday. “Derrick is a huge, huge part of our team, and we want him around for as long as we can keep him.”
Boston recently signed White’s backcourt mate, Jrue Holiday, to a four-year, $135 million extension. The former is eligible for a four-year $123 million extension in the offseason.
The Celtics keeping their core intact means staring down the possibility of spending well over $100 million in luxury tax penalties on top of a $200+ million payroll. That’s an exorbitant price, but doing so also means they’ll have fewer holes to fill.
And as team governor Wyc Grousbeck Celtics stated at Holiday’s introductory press conference after Boston acquired the two-time All-Star, “I look at the next six years as a real opportunity for us.
