There was a time where Derrick White and Dejounte Murray had big dreams of rebuilding a dynasty in San Antonio. White’s rookie year was the final season in San Antonio for Spurs legends Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. White and Murray had hoped to take the baton from them and build something meaningful with coach Gregg Popovich.
Circumstances never allowed for that to happen. Murray suffered an ACL tear in White’s second season. The following season was shortened by the COVID pandemic. The year after that, the Spurs decided to move in a different direction.
“We were just starting to figure out how to play with each other,” White told Boston Sports Journal after the team’s final practice before Game 1 of their opening round series against Atlanta. “We definitely had big dreams and aspirations, of course. Obviously our paths have changed a little bit.”
White was traded to Boston at last season’s trade deadline, and then in the offseason, Murray was sent to Atlanta to join Trae Young in the backcourt. Now the two former teammates are looking to knock each other out of the playoffs instead of advancing together.
“It’s a different challenge. Obviously, he’s a great player,” White said of Murray. “It’s going to be a challenge for us. He’s just a big competitor. We competed all the time in practices and whatever it might be, so this is a chance for us to compete against each other and I think we’re both looking forward to that.”
White actually hopes to have two celebrations this spring. While we wait to see if a championship party is in the offing, White’s son Hendrix will be celebrating his first birthday next month.
Planning that will be a lot less stressful than checking his phone every time he walked into the locker room during last year’s run to the Finals to see if he would be pulled away from the team. Hendrix might be a typical 11-month-old handful, but as he grows older, White grows more comfortable in Boston.
“Last year was just like a whirlwind,” White told BSJ. “From the moment I got here, whether it was moving, finding a place to live, figuring out these crazy roads, and then obviously, bringing a baby into it and all those great challenges that you get thrown into. This year has been much more settled and I know where I'm going.”
Now White has been thrust into the starting lineup. Williams’ absence to start the season pushed White into a new opportunity, which has given him confidence that is most evident in his shooting. He finished this season shooting 38.1% from deep, easily the best mark of his career.
“Derrick’s a really special case of someone who, over time, figured out that he belongs,” said Popovich when the Spurs visited last month. “The immediate thing you could see is that he had an instinctive nose for the game. He understood how to play. Most NBA players don't know how to play … he just got better and better because he put so much time in. And then it was just a matter of convincing him that he did belong so his confidence would grow.”
That prodding continued in Boston. Ime Udoka had to push White into being aggressive on defense and not worry about taking a foul here or there. He had to be encouraged to shoot … or even just talk.
“We kind of took it upon ourselves last year to make him feel more comfortable,” Robert Williams said of White. “We felt like he wasn’t talking, he wasn’t opening up to his teammates. But he does a great job of that, and his game flows with that.”
Now White is very likely to end up on an All-Defensive team. He can be relied upon to score when the opportunity presents itself, regardless of who is on the floor with him. And his ability to do a bit of everything has allowed the Celtics to play a different style than they had been used to, going five-out to spread the floor in addition to the double-big starting lineup that got them to the Finals last season.
“That's a great thing about this team. It could be two bigs, it could be five out, it could be me, it could be Malcolm (Brogdon), it could be (Marcus) Smart,” White told BSJ. “Especially in the playoffs, you need to be able to play different ways and we've done that pretty much this whole year and we're ready, prepared to do whatever we need to do to win games.”
The Celtics have won 57 games with White as a major contributor, the most wins Boston has racked up in 14 seasons. White has played 210 fourth-quarter minutes this season, fourth-most on the team, but just under 64 minutes in the clutch. That's seventh on the team, a number low enough that Joe Mazzulla acknowledged late in the season that he needs to go to White more often in those situations. But with Smart and Brogdon as viable clutch options, when does White get the call?
“All three of us, we've all sat down and talked and let each other know we're here to win and that's our main goal,” Smart said. “We're going to sacrifice, whatever that means, to reach that. And for us, we understand that we all three can't play at the same time. There's not enough minutes. We understand that some of us might be on the court for a good period of time together, but somebody's gotta go to the bench and we understand that if that happens, it's nothing personal.
“We're all trying to win and it's for the betterment of the team. When you got guys that buy into the system and understand what we're trying to reach, it's easy to get along and it's easy to make the strides that we have been making. Especially going into the playoffs.”
White’s willingness to be whatever the team needs him to be makes it easy for a coach to choose him as the guy who sits, but it’s also what makes him un-sittable sometimes. If there was a ‘connective tissue’ award in the NBA, it could be named after White and his ability to be all things to a team. He’s a ball handler, passer, scorer, and defender. He’ll play 48 minutes or 4.8 if that's what the team decides, so long as that leads to a win.
“You never know who it’s going to be game in, game out,” White said. “We’ve got a lot of other guys who can do a lot of different things. You’ve got a lot of guys that are willing to sacrifice and do what it takes to win.”