Derrick White's 3-ball returning to form would revolutionize Mazzulla Ball

The Boston Celtics believe Mazzulla Ball is what drove last year's success and should continue to drive this year's success. Many believe Mazzulla Ball simply centers around chuck threes, and while that's part of it, it doesn't tell the story. Still, his strategy is his players knocking it down from deep, and one who wasn't really doing that was Derrick White.

In his first three full seasons (full being the operative word), White was a knockdown shooter, shooting 38.1% from distance in 2022-23, 39.6% in 2023-24, and 38.4% in 2024-25. He clearly established himself as a threat from deep.

Last season, though, it was a different story. White reminded Celtics fans of the shooter he was when he first got to Boston mid-season in 2022, as he shot 32.7% from three. His relative true shooting percentage didn't do him any favors, whether it was in the regular season or postseason.

As much as it stunk to see White's jumper abandon him, his history would suggest that last season was an aberration. Plus, with Jayson Tatum on a clean bill of health, that could certainly impact how White shoots.

He won't be counted on as much to run the offense with Tatum, Paul George, and likely Payton Pritchard getting the ball more. There's no telling what his usage will be exactly, but White may rely more on catch-and-shoot than he did last season.

If it returns to form, Mazzulla Ball gets the extra flavor it needs to be truly unstoppable. As I said, there are more components to the strategy, like offensive rebounding and taking care of the ball, but WHite re-establishing himself as one of the team's best floor spacers would go a long way in making the Celtics harder to stop.

The Celtics' offense still hummed despite White's shooting struggles

Tatum's absence and White's history made his three-point struggles pretty easy to notice. However, despite that, Boston's offense still fared quite well when he was on the floor. In the regular season, their offensive rating was a plus-2.3 when he was on the floor.

He didn't keep that up in the playoffs, as the offensive rating was a minus-19 when he was on the floor. To be fair, Jaylen Brown was even worse, but we don't have to go into that (the Celtics starting lineup was a giant yikes in the first round).

This season, Boston will be out to prove that they can be just as good without Brown and maybe better. White has always been a high-impact player despite technically not being an All-Star. If his three-point shot returns, Brown's absence won't be as felt, and Mazzulla may be more alive than ever.

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