Derrick White is testing the validity of the old NBA adage that it is a “make or miss league.”
Despite enduring a career-worst scoring efficiency season, he is still grading out as one of the league’s most impactful players. This should not be possible. Even in the analytics era, we should still be able to cling to the concept that putting the orange ball in the basket is the key indicator of how good a player and a team is.
However, both Derrick White and the 2025-2026 Boston Celtics are, so far, successfully bending the reality of that widely accepted truth.
Efficient scoring is typically a staple of the Derrick White Experience. Each of the past three seasons, White has posted a true shooting percentage of 60%, ranking him 24th among guards from the 2022-2023 season to the 2024-2025 season. This season, efficient scoring has elluded him. D White is in the midst of a 52% true shooting season, which would have placed him at 156th among guards over the same three season stretch. 52% is an abhorrent number. But it has not mattered when it comes to impacting winning.
There is no perfect “catch all” metric, however a widely accepted one is Estimated Plus Minus (EPM) that Dunks and Threes created. Again, not perfect, but it typically spits out the best guys at the top of the league each year without many outliers. For example, last season’s top-10 players were: Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, Steph Curry, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton. This season, despite his ice-cold shot-making, Derrick White ranks 11th in EPM. So how is D White doing it? The answer is simple: he’s doing everything else at an extremely high level. Shot blocking, playmaking, rebounding, and of course, making Derrick White plays.
Let’s quickly zoom in on just how impactful Derrick White has been for the Celtics this season. When White is on the court, the Celtics have a +11 net rating. This would rank them second in the NBA, slightly behind OKC, who currently have an +11.5 net rating. When Derrick White is off the court, the Celtics have a +1.7 net rating. This would rank the team at 14th in the NBA. That is a monstrous on/off swing of 9.3 points per 100 possessions. For context, let’s compare that on/off swing to the elite of the elite:
- Nikola Jokic – 15.2
- Shai Gilgeous Alexander – 9.9
- Cade Cunningham – 7.3
- Luka Doncic – 6.6
- Kevin Durant – 4.6
- Anthony Edwards – 0.3
Derrick White is putting up superstar numbers. More accurately, he’s putting up superstar NBA nerd numbers.
Derrick White agrees. On the most recent episode of Derrick’s podcast “White Noise”, his co-host, Alex Welsh, shared a message that White sent to their group chat.
“I don’t have All Star numbers, just All-Star impact.”
Derrick White is correct. He impacts the game at not just an All-Star level, but an All-NBA level. Sadly, White’s cold shooting likely cost him his first All-Star appearance.
Now that we have established the level at which Derrick White impacts winning, let’s examine how he’s doing it. It starts on the defensive end, and it starts with White being the best shot-blocking guard since Dwyane Wade. White is currently averaging 1.4 blocks per game. There are three guards in the history of the sport who have averaged at least 1.4 blocks per game: Michael Jordan (twice), Tracy McGrady, and Derrick White. Even Dwyane Wade reached only 1.3 blocks per game in 2008. And if we’re being honest, T-Mac is six-foot-eight, hardly a guard. In a vacuum, Derrick White providing center-like rim protection is mind-boggling.
Now, when you put it in the context of the 2025-2026 Boston Celtics, you start to understand why advanced analytics are head over heels for Derrick White. While Neemias Queta is doing a wonderful job protecting the rim this season, as soon as he goes to the bench, the Celtics do not have a traditional rim protector. Luka Garza has been a revelation for the Celtics, but he would never be mistaken for a rim protector. Neither would the recently acquired Nikola Vučević.
There have also been large stretches of the season when Joe Mazzulla has opted for no big men on the court. Enter Derrick White. Opposing offensive players are shooting 5.1% fewer shots at the rim when Derrick White is on the court. That puts White in the 97th percentile. That number indicates that players are deterred from going to the rim when Derrick White is out there. Not quite in a Victor Wembanyama way, but in a Derrick White way. When opponents actually challenge Derrick White at the rim, they are shooting 10.4% worse than they typically would. For context, Rudy Gobert is currently forcing opponents to shoot 10.1% worse at the rim. There is no need for a traditional rim protector when you have Derrick White. White has been comfortably the best guard defender in the league this season and has a case for the most valuable defender as well.
However, the individual scoring efficiency has not been there for Derrick White this season, but he is still helping drive an elite offense. One of the tenets of the 2025-2026 Boston Celtics is taking care of the basketball. Derrick White ranks in the 90th percentile in turnover percentage (while having a career high in usage). Not only does White do an excellent job of not turning the ball over, he also excels at generating assists. Derrick is generating 14.2 potential assists per 100 possessions, which places him in the 95th percentile. It feels as if there are infinite ways D White pushes things forward on offense for the Celtics. The team plays faster with Derrick on the court; their two-point field goal percentage is higher, and they generate more shots at the rim. Derrick White is the skeleton key that unlocks every lineup he finds himself in.
If a player is going to get traded, they should try to get traded to Derrick White’s team. He will make them feel right at home. Welcome to TD Garden, Vuc.
The last piece of Derrick White’s game that rounds out his superstar impact, is the Derrick White plays. These plays are unquantifiable. Know in your heart that these plays are the final infinity stone in Derrick White’s infinity gauntlet.
A superhero analogy is the only analogy applicable because the only explanation for Derrick being able to steal this ball is that he’s actually Spider-Man.
Derrick White is a microcosm of the 2025-2026 Boston Celtics. The Celtics have a true shooting percentage of 57.9% this season. That puts them smack bang in the middle of the league at 15th. Meanwhile the Celtics rank second in offensive efficiency. Joe Mazzulla, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Co. are figuring out how to be an elite basketball team without being an elite shot-making team. Don’t turn the ball over, protect the rim, make the right play, crash the glass, and be willing to die on the court every night.