Fans of the Boston Celtics are up in arms about the exclusion of their favorite team’s starting point guard, Derrick White, from ESPN’s 2023-24 top 100 player list — and it seems ESPN senior writer Kevin Pelton agrees with them. Pelton, writing in an article on the omissions from the list, said the Colorado native’s exclusion was the “most glaring omission from the top 100” and that “White had a case as the most important player on last season’s Celtics outside of stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.”
“With White on the court, Boston outscored opponents by 11 points per 100 possessions according to NBA Advanced Stats, which dropped to 1.3 without him,” added the author.
“While White did benefit from weaker opponent shooting on 3s in his minutes, he also played a key role in that differential with his career-high 38% 3-point shooting and secondary playmaking on a team badly in need of it.”
Celtics Lab 221: Separating fact from fiction in Boston's 2023-24 campaign with Jeff Zilgitt https://t.co/5hqfMCxlTI
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) October 10, 2023
“There’s a better case for White as one of the NBA’s top 50 players than outside the top 100,” suggested Pelton.
Between the math and the eye test, we are quite inclined to agree.
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