Boston Celtics guard Derrick White is getting Team USA consideration ahead of the Paris Olympics.
Speaking on NBA Countdown before Game 4, ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski says that White “looms as a real potential candidate for Team USA in the Summer Olympics if Kawhi Leonard is unable to successfully rehab back from that knee inflammation that kept him out of the backend of the playoffs.”
White is playing the best basketball of his career right now, effecting winning at a high-level.
Taking what the defense gives him, he scores efficiently. Making the right —and at times just simple —pass, he’s been a sound playmaker. He’s among the best better perimeter defenders and has a knack for blocking shots. On the season, he’s averaging 15.2 points, 5.2 assists, 1.0 steals, 1.2 blocks and 1.5 turnovers per game. He’s shooting 46.1 percent from the field, 39.6 percent from 3, and 90.1 percent from 3.
Team USA Considering Adding Third Celtics Player for Paris Olympics
At the end of the day, if USA Basketball wants to replace Leonard with White, it’s not a bad decision.
Yet, in their bid for Leonard, one assumes that they were looking for a player with more size and positional versatility. To that point, White’s block average may be particularly impressive given his height, but he doesn’t play much bigger than his size. For reference, White is 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds. Meanwhile, Leonard is 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds, capable of guarding 1-4. If the goal is to replace him specifically, they should be looking at White’s teammate.
Jaylen Brown Snubbed Again
Team USA snubbed Jaylen Brown from their initial roster, selecting Devin Booker over him. Booker is an excellent scorer but far from a reliable defender. Meanwhile, Brown is among the top-way players in the league. That said, USA Basketball leaving him off the roster again —and saying it’s so that White can replace Leonard no less—is a poor decision.
Homing in on Brown’s defensive versatility, he’s an elite defender who can guard 1-4, like Leonard. Not only is he 6-foot-6 and 223 pounds, strong and explosive, but he’s technically sound. Yet, it goes far beyond that.
To start, Brown was recently named the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals MVP and is the favorite to win the 2024 NBA Finals MVP. In a ‘what have you done for me lately’ league, there’s little logic bypassing Brown for one of his teammates. In the playoffs, when the pressure is on and cream rises to the top, Brown has been their best player. He has one main weakness on offense, which is that he can be streaky from outside. Over the past three seasons, he’s shot 34.8 percent from 3. In the five seasons prior to that, he made 37.8 percent of his 3s.
With that said, if USA Basketball wanted someone who could thrive off-ball, White could be the better option. That would be the only reason his being picked over Brown would make sense, though it would be to ignore that White had a career 3-point percentage of .344 prior to last season.
Lastly, there is the possibility that one of Team USA’s top scorers goes down. In that event, having Brown available is undeniably more beneficial than White. For everything White is, he is not yet a reliable go-to scorer. The Celtics aren’t consistently asking him to carry them across the finish line with volume scoring. They do ask that of Brown though.
That said, just imagine if White was picking up the slack for LeBron James or Kevin Durant offensively? Would he have as much success as Brown would off-the-dribble, in the midrange, or around the rim? To that point, 3-pointers aren’t the be all the end all for the vast majority of the NBA’s No. 1 options, especially if their opponent schemes to limit those attempts.
In the end, there are a few reasons to select White as Leonard’s injury replacement, but Brown checks off more boxes.
