3 Big Questions for Derrick White Heading Into the Boston Celtics 2025 Season

Over the next two weeks, I will pose three questions I have for each member of the Celtics roster, and why I think they will/won't give us the answer we're looking for.

We have exactly 14 days until the start of training camp and NBA media day. So, as a way to ramp back up and be prepared for the start of the new season, I thought a 14-day mini-series would be a fun exercise.

Over the next two weeks, I will pose three questions I have for each member of the Celtics roster, and why I think they will/won't give us the answer we're looking for. In some editions, as we approach the back end of the bench, I might add two or three players into one post; however, for the most part, it will be one player per day.

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Now, let's kick it off by starting with Derrick White.

Will we see an increase in White's pick-and-roll creation?

Last season, Jayson Tatum ran 7.4 pick-and-rolls per game. With him out of the rotation, those possessions will likely need to be redistributed elsewhere on the roster.

White averaged 3.5 pick-and-roll possessions per game during the 2024-25 regular season, accounting for 22.9% of his total offense. He took 2.8 shots per game out of pick-and-roll actions when operating as the ball handler, with an Effective Field Goal percentage of 52.6%. Overall, he averaged 0.98 points per pick-and-roll possession.

With Tatum out and Jrue Holiday no longer on the roster, logic dictates that both White and Jaylen Brown will see an increase in their pick-and-roll activity in the upcoming season. They will step into orchestration roles, guiding the symphony of talent in search of hitting the right notes at the right time.

I, for one, am still of the belief that Brown's best role (in terms of playmaking) will come off the catch. Therefore, White may need to step into the role of primary initiator in half-court scenarios.

Even something as simple as coming off a screen and kicking out to Brown on the second side, so that he can attack off the catch, is something that we could see become a key part of the Celtics' offense.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about from Boston's game 2 against the Orlando Magic in the playoffs, except Holiday is in the role I envision Brown to be in.

Interestingly, when watching the game tape, White's PnR ball-handler offense primarily came with Tatum as the screener. Brown may need to step into that role, creating an interesting two-man game. According to Basketball Index, Brown ranked in the 86th percentile for screening talent among forwards last season, and in the 56th percentile for forwards in roll-man situations.

PnR actions are a key part of an NBA offense. Even if Joe Mazzulla alters his overall system and approach, the Celtics will still use a heavy dose of PnRs in the half-court. Given the role White will likely step into – where he will be one of the primary ball-handlers – it will be interesting to see whether he's tasked with initiating out of those scenarios, and if so, how he uses his changes of pace to create passing opportunities.

Fortunately, White rarely makes bad reads, so the Celtics could find themselves in good hands. If White proves he can run the half-court offense at volume, Boston’s half-court offense could avoid the type of stagnation we're likely all worried about after a summer of changes.

🗣 My Take: White and Brown will both shoulder a bigger role in terms of shot creation and playmaking. Mazzulla will likely experiment with the optimal ways to get the best out of the duo. As such, we could see White running more PnR for stretches, with the most likely outcome being to get him penetrating before countering how the defense reacts.

White's ability to control his pace and tempo, make reads on the fly and his three-level scoring make him a logical primary PnR ball-handler for the upcoming season. Furthermore, that could be the key to unlocking Brown as a downhill playmaker, which we will look at later in this mini-series.

Can White maintain his elite defensive impact while carrying a larger offensive load?

Over the last two seasons, White has finished 8th and 10th in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Granted, this past season he was tied with Bam Adebayo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but 10th is 10th.

White has also made the All-Defense second team twice in the last three years. His two-way impact has been an integral cog in Mazzulla's machine. However, with White expected to step into a larger offensive role, it's fair to ask whether he can continue to produce at an All-NBA level on the defensive end.

After all, he will have less space to operate on offense, which could mean embracing a more physical style of play. Tasking him with being a primary defensive cog on the perimeter, along with a high-volume ball-handler, playmaker, and shot-creator on offense, raises the question of whether his efficiency and defensive sharpness can hold steady across an 82-game grind.

That's a tall ask of anybody. However, White has the motor, IQ, and floor-spacing ability to make it feasible. He's also a strong decision maker and can take possessions off when working as a catch-and-shoot threat, spacing the floor on the weakside.

Nevertheless, White's 20.4% usage rate is likely to increase sharply. Although his overall playmaking will likely sit at a similar level, as he finished last season with 73.3 touches per game, second behind Tatum. Instead, it's Brown who will likely see his touches jump along with Payton Pritchard.

Still, with a much larger role on offense, it's fair to wonder whether other aspects of his game will take a back seat...Like, will we see fewer chase-down blocks? Will he switch more, rather than chase his man over screens? Will he look to pass rather than drive the ball, as he looks to conserve energy?

Everything in life needs balance. The offensive side of White's seesaw is about to get heavier; therefore, Mazzulla must find ways to keep the overall workload level.

🗣 My Take: White is more than good enough to step into a larger offensive role without suffering too much of a defensive slippage. Sure, alterations will need to be made; after all, he needs to ensure he can sustain his approach for an entire 82-game season, plus however many postseason games the Celtics get.

Things may get a little janky for a week or two...Maybe even a month...But once everyone settles into their new roles and Mazzulla's new system (if he implements one) starts to take hold, I think White will thrive as a two-way threat. Whether that means he continues to be in contention for All-Defense and the top-10 of DPOY voting, will remain to be seen.

Can White's perimeter scoring hold steady in a new-look rotation?

The numbers suggest so. Last season, 81.4% of White's made threes came via an assist when Tatum was on the floor. When Tatum went to the bench, 79.6% of White's threes were made via an assist.

Therefore, White's catch-and-shoot threat only dropped by 2.0 percentage points without Tatum on the floor; a relatively modest change that suggests his perimeter production should remain stable with Tatum out of the rotation for the upcoming season.

However, that data doesn't tell us everything. After all, Tatum isn't the only member of last season's roster who won't be around this season. According to Cleaning The Glass, when Tatum was off the court and White was on, the Celtics primarily leaned on a rotation of Holiday, White, Brown, Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis – with that lineup playing 155 possessions.

Holiday, Horford and Porzingis won't be there to help space the floor this season.

And that's where the spacing issues start to arise.

Teams won't have as many shooting threats to worry about with the Celtics' new roster. They can load up easier, close out harder, and look to force Boston to attack off the bounce.

The likelihood is that when playing with the starters, White should have more than enough floor spacers around him to still be a significant threat off the catch, which accounts for 6.1 of his 9.1 threes per game, the bigger concern will be when/if he's sharing the floor with some of the second unit.

If White has one or two non-shooters on the floor with him, his ability to knock down shots off the catch may be limited as teams will be emboldened with how they look to cover him.

🗣 My Take: As long as the Celtics continue to lean into a motion-based offense, they should find enough ways of springing White free. Therefore, I wouldn't expect to see his catch-and-shoot numbers take too much of a hit. However, his shot difficulty might increase, as the overall gravity on the court has weakened.

Still, White will be a core part of Boston's perimeter offense, and could see his threes-per-game continue to trend upward, likely entering into the double-figure category this season. I think he's smart enough and moves well enough that he should have no problem finding and exploiting gaps in opposing defenses.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't be mad if we saw him pass up some threes to get downhill and hit some floaters or push-shots when punishing defenders for closing out...It's all about scoring variety and the confidence to execute based on what the defense is giving you.

What are your three questions for White heading into the new season? Let me know in the comments...

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