While Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford and Marcus Smart have been the Boston Celtics' leading men this postseason, Derrick White has emerged as the ultimate glue guy.
With his strong combination of scoring, playmaking and defensive versatility, White has given the Celtics' bench a spark and in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, he proved to be one of the catalysts in their fourth-quarter comeback, piling on 21 points on 5-of-8 from the 3-point line in their 120-108 win in San Francisco.
Derrick White scored 21 points and drained 5 threes in Game 1, including the pivotal 3 late in Q4 to tie the Game for the @celtics! #AllAbout18 pic.twitter.com/ziIYnOjOdm
— NBA (@NBA) June 3, 2022
Only joining the team in February, following a mid-season trade, White's arrival coincided with the Celtics taking off and now find themselves duking it out with the Golden State Warriors for the Larry O'Brien trophy.
Revisit the deadline deal that helped put the Celtics over the top in the Eastern Conference.
Revisiting the Celtics-Spurs trade: How Derrick White landed in Boston
After the Celtics got off to a slow start this season, they began to turn a corner once they got everyone healthy at the trade deadline prior to the All-Star break
Sitting seventh in the Eastern Conference with a 32-25 record at the time of the trade, Boston loomed as a threat in the East, but what followed was surely beyond their own expectations.
Acquiring White and Daniel Theis at the deadline while moving Dennis Schroder, Josh Richardson and Romeo Langford, things began to click as they went 18-6 the rest of the way to climb to the No. 2 seed in the East.
2022 Celtics-Spurs trade details
- Celtics received: Derrick White
- Spurs received: Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, a 2022 first-round draft pick, and a 2028 first-round pick swap.
At the time, the Celtics bet on their current group, sending out a first-round draft pick and a pick swap, along with Josh Richardson and Romeo Langford, but President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens was confident White was the missing piece.
MORE: How a trade in 2013 paved the way for Boston's Finals run
"That's the cost, right? That's the part you lose sleep over is the unknown," Stevens said.
"The pick and then the pick swap. I mean, the pick swap probably moreso. But I also think you don't have a chance to get the perfect complement with three-and-a-half years left on a really good contract who your players already know, who your coach is already really comfortable with, and you've always been a huge fan of as a staff, not just me. That doesn't come around every day.
"So, being able to be unencumbered moving beyond this year should the pick convey I think is a good thing. I guess the deal will be judged in 2028, but that's OK with us. Let's try to be the best that we can be, let's try to put some guys around our best players that can really make us fly and let's have some fun."
How becoming a father focused Derrick White
Much like Fred VanVleet in 2019, Derrick White discovered his newfound 'Dad strength' following the birth of his son during the playoffs.
His son Hendrix was born during the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals and White missed Game 2 against the Miami Heat to be with his family.
While he didn't hit the ground running in his return, shooting a combined 4-of-16 across Games 3 and 4, he went 6-of-8 in Game 5, 7-of-14 (including four threes) in Game 6 and 2-of-3 from beyond the arc in Game 7.
Then came the NBA Finals.
In Game 1 against the Warriors, White was one of the best players on the floor, pouring in 21 points and three assists on 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
| Playoff Games | PTS | AST | REB | FG% | 3P% | |
| Pre-birth | 12 | 6.7 | 2.5 | 3.7 | 34.7 | 23.7 |
| Post-birth | 7 | 12.9 | 3.1 | 3.3 | 42.9 | 43.8 |
“It was just a special feeling,” White said of becoming a father. “I wasn't there, but even just getting pictures and videos and all that on the plane, it was just special, and he's already changed our life.”
College and draft history
White's journey to the NBA took him the long way around, from an unrecruited prospect to the NBA Finals.
At 6-foot, 155 pounds, White was not recruited coming out of high school and sent DVDs of his highlights to 50-odd schools, all coming back with the same response, that he was too small.
The only four-year offer he received was a non-scholarship offer from then-coach Jeff Culver at NAIA school Johnson & Wales, better known for its culinary arts program, than its basketball exploits.
After Culver left Johnson & Wales to take the head coaching position at Division II University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, he offered White a $3,000 scholarship as a walk-on with an opportunity to earn a full scholarship.
White took out a loan for the rest of his tuition and seized his opportunity, playing three years at Colorado, leaving as the school's all-time leader in points (1,912) and assists (343), before making the leap to Division I, playing for Colorado.
Now 6-foot-5, White had blossomed into an NBA prospect, averaging 18.1 points, 4.4 assists and 4.1 rebounds, earning All-Pac-12 First Team honors.
He entered the 2017 NBA Draft and was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the No. 29 overall pick, where he played the first four-and-a-half seasons of his NBA career, before arriving in Boston.
How Team USA served as a pre-curser to Boston
While White arrived in Boston as the newest member of the team in February, his familiarity with the current Celtics dates back a few years.
White played alongside Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart for Team USA at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China and it's not just his teammates on the court that helped him settle in so quickly.
Head coach Ime Udoka and assistant Will Hardy previously worked with White when they were part of Gregg Popovich's coaching staff in San Antonio before coming over to Boston.
“Derrick is a no-excuses, just-keep-going kind of guy,” Hardy told The Ringer.
“That’s what our team’s done this year. We haven’t made excuses. We haven’t pointed a finger. We haven’t complained and said that this isn’t fair… That’s exactly how Derrick’s journey has been… He’s just kept working. … His personality and the personality of our team are very similar.”
