Spurs guard Derrick White was shocked by the team’s decision to trade him to the Celtics this week, Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News writes. By trading White, San Antonio acquired Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, a 2022 first-round pick (top-four protected), and the right to swap first-round picks with Boston in 2028 (top-one protected).
“The whole coaching staff, training staff, front office – I had a lot of love for everybody, all my teammates and everything,” he said. “So, I can’t really put into words how much I love all of them. It was hard for me, but I knew once I got here, it’s a new chapter and I am ready to get after it.”
White will add backcourt depth to a Celtics team that also traded Dennis Schröder on Thursday. He made his debut on Friday against Denver, recording 15 points and six rebounds in 28 minutes off the bench.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Pelicans center Willy Hernangomez has exited the NBA’s health and safety protocols, according to ESPN’s Andrew Lopez (Twitter link). Hernangomez is expected to be available for the team’s game against San Antonio on Saturday. He originally entered protocols on February 3.
- The Pelicans and Trail Blazers didn’t require any physicals in the trade that featured star guard CJ McCollum, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report tweets. ESPN’s Bobby Marks said on The Lowe Post that New Orleans waived McCollum’s physical (hat tip RealGM), so it’s still unclear if physicals were waived for all of the players involved in the deal. As Marks notes, it’s unusual for a team to waive a physical when the player has significant money left on his contract. McCollum will make $30.9MM this season, $33.3MM in 2022/23 and $35.8MM in 2023/24. He missed time due to a collapsed lung back in December.
- The Spurs are entering a new phase of its rebuild, Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News writes. In addition to trading White, the team also made some other moves on Thursday, including sending veteran forward Thaddeus Young to Toronto. San Antonio currently ranks 12th in the Western Conference at 21-35.
Pelicans said “we are trading for CJ regardless of outcome” refreshing to watch borderline nba teams taking swings at gettin better after years of half the league tanking at the trade deadline
You have to give it to the Pelicans, they at least always try ajd get better. The results don’t always show up on the court, but if they’re healthy next season they could be a surprise playoff team.
Graham, CJ, Ingram, Zion, Valunciunas
Lewis, Murphy, H.Jones, Nance Jr., Hayes
That’s a solid 10 of vets and young and improving players. I think it really would all come down to the health of Zion as he just makes the Pelicans a completely different team when he’s added to the mix.
With Zion, they could be a solid 5th-6th seed or so, but without him, they’re likely borderline play-in material…
I’d say, build some chemistry with the players you already have, and sit Zion out the entire season. Then, next season, integrate Zion into the mix, hope you’re able to gel with all your guys, and hope your younger players have taken a step forward as well..
SAS low key did very very well this year. Perhaps they should try this trading thing out a little more often
They cleared out the backcourt a little (necessary) and really netted some nice assets for just White Thad and being able to accommodate other teams dumps with cap availability
Spurs are in a great position to be very competitive within two years.
Murray, Johnson, Vassel, Primo and Jakob are cornerstones. If Collins can stay healthy, with the cap space and a high pick this summer, they could be back in the playoffs next year.
This is a team that has so much quality depth that a single Superstar could make this a heck of a team.
That was a smooth transition into a sales pitch, “Greg1” Popovich.
@greg1… they already have Murray, which this year is playing at superstar level, knocking on the doors of a top 10 player for this season & at the moment for me the third best guard in the league, behind Luka & Harden, although I think he will get past Harden soon enough!
Anyway I think SAS has their superstar in Murray, they just need some good players around him, as this year he is the only one playing winning ball in the team!