Derrick White’s shooting was brutal, but one stat proves his real Celtics value

Derrick White fell victim to some major shooting regression last season. He was bumped into a bigger role on offense; he started slumping, and he never recovered. White finished the regular season shooting a meager 32.7% from three and just 39.2% from the field overall; that’s grim stuff for a starting guard, especially one usually reliable for solid efficiency.

The shooting was extremely ugly, and it drew a lot of attention. And yet, despite that, White was still one of the most effective players in the NBA last season, as he had the fourth-highest +/- in the entire league, and the Celtics were +598 during Derrick’s 2,625 minutes in the 2025-26 regular season.

I think individual plus/minus is a very nuanced and contextual statistic, and the volatility of games and small sample sizes can skew the data, certainly for single games. But over the course of an entire season? That usually paints a pretty accurate portrait of what happened, and I’d say that’s confirmed by the other names on the list.

White had fourth-best Plus/Minus in NBA last season

The only players ahead of White were Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (+788), Victor Wembanyama (+682), and Chet Holmgren (+678). And just after White, the rest of the top 10 was made up of Julian Champagnie, Nikola Jokic, Duncan Robinson, Cason Wallace, Cade Cunningham, and Ajay Mitchell.

So, outside of White, that list consists of eight players on 60+ win teams and Nikola Jokic. It features the top 3 finishers for MVP plus #5. And then we had one single player who wasn’t even an All-Star, didn’t play for a team that won 60+ games, and was largely propped up by an MVP candidate. And that was one Derrick White.

White impacted winning as much as any Celtic

So again, while all of the focus last year was on Jaylen Brown’s great season and scoring, the Celtics’ depth, and White’s poor shooting, it was actually White’s all-around game and impact that may have driven winning for Boston more than any other specific element.

Even without hitting shots at a high level, he was an excellent playmaker and connector, sure-handed with the ball, an astute screener, and an absolutely stellar defender in every way possible.

There were rumors that people around the league and even within the organization considered White the Celtics’ best and most important player last season, and frankly, it’s hard to argue with the numbers. He may not have had the highlight-reel dunks, the flamethrowing three-point barrages, or the gawky stat lines. But he was insanely steady and consistent at making the right play, being in the right place, and simply impacting winning at every level.

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