For the past two seasons, there’s a case to be made that Derrick White has been the third most valuable member of the Celtics. Boston paid a heavy price to acquire the former Spurs guard at the trade deadline in 2022, giving up Josh Richardson, a future first round pick and a top-1 protected pick swap in 2028. White’s presence helped catapult Boston into an NBA Finals contender during the 2021-22 season and he was arguably the team’s second-best player during their playoff run to the 2023 East Finals last year.
Despite those accolades, White continues to fall under the radar when looked at by many national outlets and there is no better example of that than ESPN’s Top 100 player ranking which was released on Tuesday. ESPN’s “NBArank” panel is composed of nearly 150 reporters, editors, producers and analysts, who are asked to rank players based on their predicted contributions — quality and quantity — for the 2023-24 season only.
A number of current and former notable Celtics made the list with Grant Williams checking in at No. 97, Robert Williams at No. 89, Kristaps Porzingis at No. 62 and Marcus Smart at No. 59. One glaring omission on the list however was White, falling behind such guards such as Collin Sexton, Russell Westbrook, Buddy Hield, Anfernee Simons and Jordan Poole.
Leave a Reply