You’d have to be living under a rock for the past week to have missed the Boston Celtics’ slow start. They dropped their first three games of the 2025-26 campaign before finally earning their first win on Monday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
“IF” can be a massive word in sports. It’s incredibly easy to sit down and talk about hypotheticals.
Let’s do it, shall we?
Heading into this season, there was a ton of buzz about the potential for growth for many returning Celtics, like Derrick White. White has been excellent since arriving in Boston at the 2022 NBA Trade Deadline.
He’s been named to two All-Defensive teams and helped the team reach two NBA Finals, winning it all in 2024. Many believed that this would be the year that White adds another accolade to his name -- All-Star.
So far, not so good.
White hasn’t looked like himself at all through this first week of hoops. He’s struggled to shoot the ball about as much as a guy who’s shot 37.8% for five seasons can struggle.
Through four games, The Buffalo has averaged 16.5 points per game while shooting 32.9% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc. Not only are the percentages bad, but they’re coming at such a high volume. White is averaging career-highs in both field-goal (17.5) and three-point attempts (11) per game.
Once Derrick White's shots begin to fall, the Celtics' fortunes should change for the better
Boston has been a poor-shooting team as a whole, too. But White has fired up nearly a quarter of their total attempts from long range.
If he was knocking down shots anywhere near the rate at which he normally does, the conversations surrounding the Celtics would be completely different. There’s a good chance that the team would be 3-1 heading into a massive game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday. Instead, half the fanbase has already bookmarked Tankathon on their respective web browsers.
In fairness to White, he’s been battling a wrist sprain on his shooting wrist, as listed in the initial injury report for Sunday’s loss against the Detroit Pistons. There’s a real chance that the sprain is hindering his ability to knock down shots. If that’s the case, then better days should be ahead for Celtics fans.
At the same time, there was always a chance that White would struggle this season. The added opportunity that made an All-Star selection feel realistic could just as easily be too much for him to handle.
Only time will tell at this point. Four games is really too small a sample size to draw any real conclusions from.