Derrick White Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Clutch Player Award, NBA Europe, Award Picks, Oweh

April 15th, 2025 at 6:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The official candidates for Clutch Player of the Year have been revealed, NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor tweets. Here’s the list of candidates that voters can select for the award, as chosen by the league’s 30 head coaches:

Anfernee Simons, Trail Blazers
Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves
Darius Garland, Cavaliers
De’Aaron Fox, Spurs
DeMar DeRozan, Kings
Derrick White, Celtics
Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers
Jaylen Brown, Celtics
Jalen Brunson, Knicks
Jayson Tatum, Celtics
Kevin Durant, Suns
Kyrie Irving, Mavericks
LeBron James, Lakers
Luka Doncic, Lakers
Nikola Jokic, Nuggets
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
Stephen Curry, Warriors
Trae Young, Hawks
Tyler Herro, Heat
Tyrese Maxey, Sixers

Curry won the award last year.

We have more from around the international basketball world:

While the NBA is trying to establish a new league in Europe, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum insists that the goal is not to replace the EuroLeague, Eurohoops relays via a Reuters interview. “Our goal is to create a commercially viable league that features high quality on -court competition and respects the rich tradition of European basketball. And we think that that will better serve fans and players on the continent,” Tatum said. He notes that there are major cities in Europe that don’t have a team where the NBA can establish roots. “There are big markets in Europe that aren’t being serviced today, where there are millions of basketball fans that aren’t being serviced,” he said. London, Paris, Berlin and Rome are among the candidates that NBA Europe considers as prime targets.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger reveals his award picks. He has Gilgeous-Alexander atop his MVP list and the Rockets’ Amen Thompson as his Defensive Player of the Year. O’Connor, writing for Yahoo Sports, has the same duo winning those awards. They also both have Stephon Castle taking Rookie of the Year honors, Payton Pritchard atop their Sixth Man of the Year lists, and Kenny Atkinson as Coach of the Year.
Kentucky junior guard Otega Oweh will test the draft waters, Jeff Goodman of Field of 68 tweets. Oweh averaged 16.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.6 steals this past season. He played his first two seasons at Oklahoma.

Celtics Notes: Porzingis, Kornet, Brown, Horford, White

April 5th, 2025 at 7:22pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Celtics are locked into the No. 2 seed in the East, but they still have goals for the final week of the regular season, writes Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. Apart from keeping the roster healthy heading into the playoffs, coach Joe Mazzulla wants to get a look at several lineup combinations to expand his postseason options.

Washburn notes that Mazzulla has started using a double-big lineup with Kristaps Porzingis and Luke Kornet as a counter against teams relying on small-ball to limit the Celtics’ three-point attempts. Porzingis and Kornet combined for 52 paint points Friday against Phoenix while often being guarded by smaller players.

“There’s always stuff we need to continue to get better at and push ourselves and hold ourselves to a standard,” Mazzulla said. “More importantly it’s just to make sure we get reps. We were able to do some stuff at shootaround. We tried to get (the starters) higher in minutes and reps together and I thought they did a good job of that.”

There’s more from Boston:

Jaylen Brown, who’s dealing with a bone bruise in his right knee, is adapting to playing without his usual athleticism, Washburn adds. He scored 31 points Friday night, but most of those came in the paint and he frequently opted for layups instead of exploding to the rim for dunks. Brown has been on a minutes restriction, and it looks like the knee will continue to be an issue in the playoffs. “Even though my team can physically see I’m in a bit of pain, they trust me to go out there and control my body and be able to make plays,” Brown said. “I push through it and I think that’s something I’m going to have to have in my back pocket. It’s been constant communication, and I appreciate Joe because he’s given me grace. He’s letting me feel through it. He understands where it’s at. He’s letting me play through some stuff. I still want him to hold me to the same standard, but I appreciate Joe for the communication. It’s good to have that now rather than trying to figure it out once everything is on the line.”
The Celtics are offering strong support for Al Horford, who has been named as a finalist for the NBA’s Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award, per Khari Thompson of The Boston Globe. The award recognizes leadership, mentorship, selfless play and dedication to the team. “It’s a no-brainer that he should get it,” Mazzulla said. “You can’t really put into words what he’s able to do. I mean, the respect that he has of the guys. What people don’t know is how innately competitive he is day in and day out. He just sets the tone, more with his actions than anything else. I really hope he gets it. He deserves it. He’s one of the best teammates and we’re lucky to have him.”
Jayson Tatum believes Derrick White needs to develop more “street cred” by arguing with officials, according to Souichi Terada of MassLive. Tatum was thrilled when a technical foul was announced against White on Friday, but it turned out to be an error. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Tatum said. “I just heard technical foul D-White, so I got excited. I was going to go give him a huge hug or something.”

Celtics Rumors: Holiday, Porzingis, White, Horford, Ownership

March 28th, 2025 at 4:53pm CST by Luke Adams

While no one expects the Celtics to move on from Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown anytime soon, there are questions around the league about how long the club can carry one of the NBA’s highest payrolls, subjecting itself to significant luxury tax penalties and onerous second-apron restrictions, writes Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).

The general consensus is that the Celtics might be willing to run it back again if they win another title this season. “You can’t break up a team that could be going for a three-peat,” one Western Conference executive told Fischer. But if Boston falls short of a championship? “They’re going to have to trade some guys at some point,” a team capologist said.

According to Fischer, league figures are keeping a close eye on guard Jrue Holiday and big man Kristaps Porzingis as possible trade chips later this year or next. Fischer suggests that guard Derrick White would likely have more trade value than either Porzingis or Holiday if he were made available this summer, but says no one he talked to seems to believe Boston would consider moving White.

If the Celtics do consider trading one of their top five highest-paid players, Holiday could be the most obvious odd man out due to a handful of factors, including his contract (three years and $104.4MM after this season) and Boston’s loaded backcourt.

As Fischer writes, besides White, the Celtics’ depth chart includes Sixth Man of the Year frontrunner Payton Pritchard and rookie Baylor Scheierman, whose development over the course of this season has been viewed by the team as very promising.

Here’s more on the C’s:

Turning Al Horford‘s $9.5MM salary slot into a minimum-salary player next season would help the Celtics with their cap/tax situation, but the club likely wouldn’t welcome that possibility if it means losing Horford. Assuming the big man wants to continue his career, there are rival cap strategists who believe his market could start around the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.7MM), Fischer writes.
Sixth Street Partners, a private equity firm, has committed more money to William Chisholm‘s ownership bid than Chisholm himself, reports Dan Primack of Axios. That’s not permitted by NBA rules, which allow private equity firms to hold up to a 20% stake in a team as long as their share is less than that of the controlling owner (which must be at least 15%).
In Primack’s view, Chisholm’s two options are to be granted some sort of waiver by the NBA to get around that rule or to bring in enough new investors that Sixth Street’s full check is no longer necessary and they’re contributing less to the bid than Chisholm. Silver said on Thursday that the option of a waiver isn’t being discussed, according to Fischer. “Not at all,” he said. “And while the deal in a preliminary fashion has just been presented to the league, at this time there’s no contemplation of changing our ownership rules.”
Fischer also asked Silver on Thursday about the reported arrangement between Chisholm and outgoing owner Wyc Grousbeck that would keep Grousbeck in the CEO and governor positions through 2028. As Fischer notes, it sounds similar to what Mark Cuban wanted when he sold the Mavericks, but in that instance it wasn’t put into writing and didn’t happen. “I think the Grousbeck family and the buyer are still working through those arrangements on exactly how that would work in terms of CEO roles and governor roles during some transition,” Silver said. “I think the situation was very different in Dallas. There was a clear change in control of the franchise to Patrick Dumont and his family. Any decision as to what Mark’s role would be in basketball operations was a function of an arrangement to be made between Mark Cuban and Patrick. The ultimate governance was absolutely clear, as presented to our board, that the last word on any basketball activities or any significant decision for the franchise would be made by Patrick.”
In his latest mailbag, Brian Robb of MassLive answers questions about Luke Kornet‘s upcoming free agency, the best first-round playoff opponent for the Celtics, and the ownership transition.

Kristaps Porzingis Returns From Viral Illness

March 15th, 2025 at 4:48pm CST by Arthur Hill

Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis will return for Saturday’s game against Brooklyn after battling an illness for several weeks. Boston is listing Porzingis as available on its injury report (Twitter link).

This will be the first game action for Porzingis since February 26. He missed the past eight contests with a viral illness and provided details of his recovery process earlier this week.

Porzingis has only appeared in 32 games this season, so he’ll fall well short of the 65-game requirement to qualify for postseason awards. He was unavailable for the first few weeks while recovering from offseason surgery and didn’t make his season debut until November 25.

The Celtics have been careful with Porzingis’ health — keeping him out of back-to-back games — in an effort to make sure he’s injury-free heading into the playoffs. He has remained effective in his limited playing time, averaging 18.9 points and 6.8 rebounds in 28.9 minutes per night while shooting 47.4% from the field and 40.4% from three-point range.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who are both dealing with knee issues, have also been upgraded to available. Al Horford and Derrick White will be inactive, according to Souichi Terada of MassLive, as the Celtics are playing for the second straight night after defeating Miami on Friday.

Celtics Notes: Sixers Game, Pritchard, White, Walsh

March 6th, 2025 at 2:42pm CST by Rory Maher

Tonight’s nationally televised game between Boston and Philadelphia will be lacking in star power. The Celtics (Twitter links) have ruled out Jaylen Brown (right knee posterior impingement), Al Horford (left big toe sprain) and Kristaps Porzingis (illness), while Jrue Holiday remains sidelined with a broken finger on his right hand (mallet finger).

Both Jayson Tatum (right shoulder impingement) and Sam Hauser (right ankle sprain) are questionable to suit up, per the team.

The banged-up Sixers, who have already lost Joel Embiid, Jared McCain and Eric Gordon for the season, will be without Paul George this evening due to left groin soreness, Shams Charania of ESPN reports (via Twitter). George, who has battled a variety of injuries in 2024/25, was previously listed as questionable.

Tyrese Maxey (lower back sprain) and Kyle Lowry (right hip injury management) are also out for the 76ers, while Justin Edwards is questionable with a left ankle sprain, according to the league’s latest injury report.

Thursday is the second end of a back-to-back for Boston; Philadelphia last played on Tuesday.

Here’s more on the Celtics:

Guards Payton Pritchard and Derrick White made history in Wednesday’s 10-point victory over Portland, writes Kyle Hightower of The Associated Press. In addition to becoming the first Celtics duo to score 40-plus points in the same game, they also became the first tandem in NBA history to each make at least nine three-pointers in the same contest. Both players set career highs in points and threes made, with Pritchard (43 and 10) slightly edging White (41 and nine). They were both extremely efficient — Pritchard shot 14-of-20 and chipped in 10 rebounds and five assists in 43 minutes, while White was 14-of-26 and also had three rebounds, two assists, three steals and a block. Remarkably, they only combined for one turnover.
Second-year forward Jordan Walsh was a surprise contributor in yesterday’s win, notes Brian Robb of MassLive. The 21-year-old has only averaged 8.0 minutes per game in 41 appearances this season, but he matched a season high by playing 21 minutes against the Blazers. As Robb writes, Walsh hadn’t played at all in three of the five games leading up to Wednesday’s contest, in part due to the signing of veteran Torrey Craig. However, Walsh was ahead of Craig on the depth chart yesterday and got an opportunity for playing time with Tatum, Porzingis and Holiday out.
After the game, head coach Joe Mazzulla explained Walsh’s increased workload. He finished with three points and six rebounds. “Just with guys out, opportunity is there,” Mazzulla said, per Robb. “His ability to defend in individual defense, these guys do a great job of breaking guys down, and he’s really gotten better at that, and we needed someone who offensive rebounds. I think he got two big ones in the first half, I think he ended up with one more there, so just continuing to get better. It’s an opportunity to get him out there and make sure he continues to grow defensively and rebounding.”

Celtics Notes: Craig, Springer, Stevens, Porzingis, Holiday

February 8th, 2025 at 7:54pm CST by Arthur Hill

Torrey Craig chose to sign with the Celtics because they’ll give him a chance to compete for a title, writes Souichi Terada of MassLive. The 34-year-old forward became a free agent when Chicago needed to trim two players off its roster to complete a three-team trade this week. He wasn’t on the open market very long before reaching an agreement with Boston that became official this morning.

“As a competitor in the league, you always want to play for something and compete for something,” Craig said. “I’m a super competitor and I want to play basketball the right way at the highest level. Just to get an opportunity to come play with these guys was like a no-brainer.”

Craig, who has been out of action since December 30 with a sprained right ankle, told Terada that he’s feeling good, but he’s taking his return day by day. He’s trying to learn all he can about how the Celtics operate, and that process started with a quick tour of the facilities on Friday before accompanying the team on a flight for tonight’s game at New York.

Craig knows he may not have a large role with the defending champs, but he provides veteran wing depth and gives them another capable three-point shooter.

“They’re a deep team, super talented,” he said. “Well-coached, well-disciplined. They play the right way. They know what it takes to win playing defense. Playing together and having each other’s backs. You can just see it. The team chemistry and they allow each other to feed off each other and play together and I think that’s why they’ve been so dominant these past couple years.”

There’s more on the Celtics:

Players were sad to lose Jaden Springer, who was traded to Houston on Thursday in a cost-cutting move, Terada adds in a separate story. The Rockets have already waived Springer, so he’ll be searching for his next job as a free agent. “Obviously, we’re gonna miss him,” Payton Pritchard said. “Jaden’s an unbelievable person. We loved him as a teammate. But hopefully he gets his opportunity and he can showcase what he’s capable of doing in this league. He’s an unbelievable player, unbelievable defender. I think there’s definitely a place for him in this league.”
The Celtics were otherwise quiet at the deadline, which is a combination of the restrictions they face as a second-apron team and the faith that president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has in the current roster, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Washburn reveals that Boston had interest in Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter, who was dealt to Cleveland, but wasn’t willing to part with Derrick White and draft assets to get involved in the bidding. “In our situation with our team this year, today was boring as hell,” Stevens said after the deadline. “It wasn’t going to be anything going and the phones didn’t ring. We had already had any discussions that we were going to have. We weren’t just going to do anything major because at the end of the day, even through our ups and downs through the last six weeks, what gives us our best chance to win is this group playing a little bit more like itself more of the time.”
Kristaps Porzingis was a late scratch for tonight’s game due to an illness, Terada tweets. Boston is also without Jrue Holiday, who’s missing his second straight contest with a bruised shoulder.

Celtics Notes: Porzingis, Starting Lineup, Roster Moves, Mazzulla

January 18th, 2025 at 4:27pm CST by Arthur Hill

After scoring 23 points in 23 minutes on Friday, Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis expressed hope that he might be available for tonight’s game against Atlanta, writes Brian Robb of MassLive. Porzingis is officially listed as questionable, but if he’s able to take the court, it would mark his first back-to-back since returning from offseason surgery.

“I believe so,” Porzingis responded when asked if he felt he could be ready. “But that’s a little bit out of my hands. I think tomorrow we’ll know more information.”

Robb notes that Al Horford won’t be available because he also played in Friday’s game, and the Celtics haven’t used him on both nights of a back-to-back over the past two years. The final decision on Porzingis will be made by the medical staff, and Robb points out that Boston is in the midst of playing five games in seven days, so there are reasons to exercise caution.

Porzingis has played in seven straight contests since returning from an ankle injury, and he has topped 20 points in three of his last five games.

There’s more from Boston:

Friday marked a vintage performance for the Celtics’ starters, who were considered one of the best five-man units in the league last season, Robb states in a separate story. Limited by Porzingis’ absence early on, the group had been together for just 10 games before Friday and had a -11.8 net rating in 147 minutes. They looked back to normal in the victory over Orlando, outscoring the Magic by 15 points in their 20 minutes on the court together. “Results can vary with plus/minus and things like that,” Jayson Tatum said. “But I think just how connected we were on both ends of the floor, especially on defense. Everybody was on the same page, we were connected, helping each other out. So regardless of the plus/minus, the way we went about it was a lot better today.”
The Celtics emphasized continuity in the offseason, bringing back virtually the same roster than won the title in 2024, but a small trade may be necessary to shake things up, Robb adds in a mailbag column. He also suggests it might be time to reduce the minutes for starting guards Jrue Holiday and Derrick White in light of their recent struggles.
Coming off Wednesday’s embarrassing loss at Toronto, coach Joe Mazzulla encouraged his players to embrace the challenges that the NBA can present, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. The team has been surprisingly average over the past month or so, and Porzingis said it lacked spirit and energy in the 13-point defeat against the lowly Raptors. “To me, this is the fun part of why you enter the arena,” Mazzulla said. “Anyone who is not in the arena, they don’t have a skin in the game. You enjoy it and it’s fun. This is why you do what you do. This is why you play for the Celtics. This is why you play in the NBA. This is why you go after something that’s extremely hard to do is for the challenge of it. And to have an expectation of it being anything other than challenging is the wrong way to attack. … You can’t only enjoy things when they go your way. That’s called being spoiled.”

Celtics Notes: Pritchard, White, Injuries, Mazzulla

November 30th, 2024 at 9:44pm CST by Arthur Hill

Payton Pritchard provided a huge lift off the bench Friday night as the Celtics broke open a close game in Chicago and kept their hopes alive for a spot in the NBA Cup’s knockout round, writes Brian Robb of MassLive. Forced into extra duty after Derrick White left the game with a sprained right foot in the third quarter, Pritchard played 28 minutes, including the final 19, while scoring 29 points. He hit seven three-pointers and scored all the points in a late 11-4 run that put the game away.

“It’s obviously a great feeling but I feel like the best feeling is winning on the road and being able to help my team get over the hump tonight,” Pritchard said. “Obviously I feel it. I can hear the crowd, the gravity it pulls. It definitely was a fun night.”

Pritchard is in his fifth season with Boston, and it seems like a long time ago that he was asking to be traded due to a lack of playing time. He has become one of the most dangerous bench weapons in the league — averaging a career-high 15.6 PPG while shooting 48.5% from the field and 44% from three-point range — and Jayson Tatum is pushing for him to get some individual recognition.

“It’s been pretty cool to see him grow into the player that he is, being effective on a championship team,” Tatum said, “and the things that he’s doing is Sixth Man of the Year worthy for me.”

There’s more on the Celtics:

White’s injury doesn’t appear to be serious, as he’s being listed as questionable for Sunday’s showdown with Cleveland for first place in the East, per Souichi Terada of MassLive. Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Jrue Holiday are also questionable, and Terada suggests they may be staggered as Boston prepares for a stretch of five games in seven days.
Other coaches have expressed reservations about running up the score in NBA Cup games to gain a points differential advantage, but Joe Mazzulla enjoys that aspect of the tournament, Terada adds in a separate story. Mazzulla called time out Friday with 1.4 seconds left to set up a Sam Hauser three-pointer that increased the Celtics’ final margin of victory to nine points. “I like it because this tournament and the point differential kind of eliminates the unwritten rules that you’re supposed to follow or not follow,” Mazzulla said. “Where in a normal situation, you wouldn’t do that. But in this one, you get to draw up a play and try to get better in that situation. So guys did a good job executing and we tried to extend the point differential as much as we could.”
Three-point defense was a concern in Friday’s game as Chicago stayed close by sinking 20 shots from beyond the arc, notes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. It was the most all season against the Celtics, who rank fourth in the league in limiting three-pointers. “We had to turn up the pressure a little bit more. We were scoring and maybe we weren’t as physical with them so they felt good about themselves,” Porzingis said. “The second half that was an emphasis for us, being more physical with them, make them work a little bit more for everything.”

And-Ones: Playoff Format, Trade Market, All-Star Game, More

November 22nd, 2024 at 8:33pm CST by Luke Adams

If the NBA expands to 32 teams in the coming years, executives for Western Conference teams are hopeful it will provide the league an opportunity to revisit the idea of seeding the playoff teams one through 16, regardless of conference, according to Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Insider link).

Assuming Seattle and Las Vegas, the presumed frontrunners, get teams in the next round of expansion, a current Western Conference team – likely one of the Timberwolves, Grizzlies, or Pelicans – would have to move East to balance out the two conferences. Given the relative strength of the East vs. the West, those three clubs may push hard to be the one chosen, but that battle could potentially be avoided by revamping the postseason seeds, Windhorst suggests.

“It would be the right thing to do for the health of the league,” one West general manager told ESPN. “It’s not just about fairness, it’s about giving the fans the best playoff product.”

A change along those lines would require the approval of at least three-quarters of the NBA’s teams (23 of 30), as Bontemps observes, which means at least eight Eastern Conference teams would have to get on board with the idea, potentially voting against their own interests.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Bontemps and Windhorst suggest in the same ESPN story that many scouts and executives around the NBA believe the 2024/25 in-season trade market will take a while to get going. Trades this early in the season are somewhat rare anyway, and new CBA-related restrictions related to aprons and hard caps have only made deals more challenging. “We were looking at a trade concept the other day and there were three reasons the other team wouldn’t be allowed to do it,” one general manager told Windhorst. “One of the rules I didn’t even know about.”
In another Insider-only story for ESPN, Bontemps ranks all 30 NBA teams’ cores, listing each club’s top three building blocks based on both present and future value. The Celtics (Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White) top the list, while the Nets (Nic Claxton, Noah Clowney, Cam Thomas) come in at No. 30.
Joe Vardon and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic provide some additional details on the proposed changes to the NBA’s All-Star format, noting that since the league is expected to split its All-Stars into four teams, the head coaches for the top two teams in each conference (four in total) will likely be invited to All-Star weekend to coach a squad. As Vardon and Vorkunov detail, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement calls for the players on the winning All-Star team to earn $100K, while the players on the losing team earns $25K. The NBA and NBPA need to renegotiate those figures before formally implementing the new format, which would result in three losing teams instead of just one.
In a memo sent to team officials, the NBA urged its players to take extra precautions to secure their homes in the wake of a string of burglaries affecting Bucks big man Bobby Portis and Timberwolves guard Mike Conley, among others. Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press has the story.

And-Ones: H. Brown, All-Star Format, ‘Redrafted’ Players, More

November 21st, 2024 at 1:20pm CST by Luke Adams

Longtime NBA color commentator Hubie Brown will call one last game for ESPN this season before retiring, ESPN president Burke Magnus stated during an appearance on the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast (story via SI.com).

“I don’t mean to be purposely mysterious here, but we’re going to honor Hubie this year during the regular season at some point to be determined and send him off in style,” Magnus said. “I don’t think there’s a single human being who’s ever had a longer association with professional basketball.”

A two-time NBA Coach of the Year, Brown began calling games in the 1980s and has been with ESPN since 2004. He turned 91 years old in September.

We have a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

After reporting last week that the NBA is seriously considering turning the All-Star Game into a four-team tournament this February, Shams Charania of ESPN has provided more details on the format. According to Charania, the expectation is that the two semifinal games will have target scores of 40 points, while the final will have a target of 25 points. The idea is to emulate pickup games, with “quick-burst” contests and the winners advancing to the championship.
Defining a “redrafted” player as one who broke out with a second team rather than the club that drafted him, Mark Deeks of HoopsHype identifies nine of the NBA’s top redrafted players, including Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, Raptors wing Ochai Agbaji, and Thunder swingman Isaiah Joe, among others.
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report ranks the top 10 non-max contracts in the NBA this season, highlighting a few players who are still on rookie contracts (including recent Rookies of the Year Victor Wembanyama and Paolo Banchero) as well as a handful of veterans (such as Austin Reaves and Derrick White).
NBA insider Jake Fischer, formerly of Yahoo Sports, will be joining Marc Stein’s Substack, Stein confirmed today on Twitter.