Snubbed may be a little too strong, but it really did feel like there was a chance for Derrick White to make the All-Star Game this season, for the first time in his career. But thanks to a shooting slump that coincided with voting season, White didn’t make the team as his conventional counting stats and efficiency metrics left something to be desired.
One of the members of the national media who was banging the drum for D-White, and has been doing so for years, was Zach Lowe of The Ringer. While Lowe admitted that White’s shooting was enough to keep him off his All-Star team this year, he reserved a spot for him on another, less distinguished All-Star team.
On the most recent episode of the Zach Lowe Show, Zach and Chris Ryan reignited a long-running bit of Lowe’s, drafting their ‘Marc Gasol All-Stars’, in other words, their favorite players in the league to watch, with no other criteria. Lowe explains that he tries to avoid the obvious super-duper stars, but nothing is off the table.
Ryan went first, drafting his starting five and honorable mentions, then Lowe picked his team, starting with none other than Derrick White of your Boston Celtics.
Zach Lowe drafts Derrick White as one of his favorite players to watch
Lowe started his case by putting it plainly, calling White “a f***ing awesome basketball player.” From there, he went on to rave about the defense, the floater game, the basketball IQ, and how everything he does impacts winning.
He raved about his hands, the way he fights around screens, how he sees the cutting lanes on offense, and always makes the extra pass. Basically, Lowe hit on all of the little things that don’t show up in the box score, but have a major impact on winning, and make Derrick one of the most valuable, and still, underrated players in the league.
Kenny Atkinson calls White a top 5 player
The praise continued on Sunday as Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson was asked about White before facing the Celtics, and he called White a top 5 player in the league. In case there was any doubt about him misspeaking or using hyperbole, Atkinson was asked about the comment again after the game and doubled down, referring to his defensive impact, elite rim protection, and shooting.
He referenced some analytics, and he’s not wrong at all. White is fourth in the NBA in estimated plus minus and second in estimated wins, according to Dunks and Threes, numbers that stand up alongside the likes of Jokic, SGA, Wemby, and others.
White has long been heralded as an underrated player, and while he has finally started to get some hard-earned credit, his impact isn’t fully appreciated, as it’s so hard to capture in a box score. But make no mistake, the true ball-knowers see it, and the impact shows up in a major way where it matters most: the win-loss column.