‘Jrue’s been the ultimate teammate’: Derrick White credits Jrue Holiday for career-year on offensive end
White is putting up career-highs in scoring and assists per game, helping him become an All-Star candidate.
Derrick White is being considered as an All-Star candidate for the first time in his career this season, but he thinks his teammates are the ones that helped reach new heights.
The Celtics guard credited Jrue Holiday, particularly, for helping his offensive game grow in an interview on JJ Redick’s “The Old Man and the Three” podcast. When White was asked about the Celtics’ offseason trades, he had similar expectations for himself when they traded for Holiday on the eve of training camp as they did when they traded Marcus Smart in June.
“When Smart got traded, it was a shock,” White said. “Then, it was like, ‘Oh, there’s going to be a lot more opportunities and I’m going to have to step up with the ball in my hand, compared to last year.’ When we brought Jrue along, everybody was like, ‘We still need you to be aggressive and how we envisioned it before we got Jrue.’”
Boston’s expectations of White playing more aggressively on offense have reflected on the court. He’s putting up career highs in points (17) and assists (5.3) per game, while his 19.5 usage percentage is the highest it’s been since he joined the Celtics in the middle of the 2021-22 season.
Holiday, meanwhile, has sacrificed. His 12.9 points per game are the fewest he’s scored since his rookie season. Additionally, his 10.8 field goal attempts per game are also the fewest he’s recorded since his rookie season while his 16.8 usage percentage is the lowest of his career.
White said he appreciates Holiday’s sacrifice in situations where he feels he’s shooting well. He also pointed to the presence of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kristaps Porzingis for being able to help him shoot a career-best 49.4 percent from the field and 42.2 percent from distance.
“I feel like Jrue’s been the ultimate teammate,” White said. “If I’ve got it going or something, he’s willing to just stay in the corner, space the floor for us, and make a play whenever he needs to. Just having a guy like that, who’s willing to do that and is an All-Star in this league, to give me the trust to make a play has kind of unlocked my game a little bit.
“Obviously, when you’re playing with JT (Tatum) and JB (Brown), they’re getting a lot of attention. Then, KP’s (Porzingis) getting so much attention that it kind of makes the game easier for me and I’m just trying to make the right play.”
White also praised Holiday’s play on the defensive end, noting how the five-time All-NBA defensive team player has seamlessly fit into the Celtics’ scheme on that end of the court.
“Jrue is amazing. He’s one of my favorite teammates,” White said. “Whatever the team needs him to do, he’ll just go out there and do it. We’ve had him guarding point guards, we’ve had him guarding centers, like, just his strength and physicality is just second-to-none in the NBA. Just seeing how guys react when Jrue Holiday is on them is pretty cool to see, night in and night out.
“He’s special on both ends of the floor, but defensively, it’s kind of crazy, 1-5, we put him on someone and he won’t even blink.”
The backcourt duo of White and Holiday has arguably been the best defensive pairing of guards in the NBA this season. Holiday’s averaging 0.9 steals and 0.8 blocks per game as he’s been sometimes used as a roamer on the defensive end. White’s continued to play above his 6-foot-4 frame this season, blocking 1.3 shots and grabbing 1.2 steals per game.
White continued to credit others for his increased success this season. He pointed to his growing comfortability in the Celtics’ defensive scheme, where they switch on nearly all screens, and Porzingis as a pair of reasons why he’s been among the top defensive guards this season and why Boston has the third-best defensive rating in the league.
“It’s definitely confusing,” White said of the Celtics’ defensive system. “My first year, after I got traded, I was like, ‘What is going on? This is not how I’ve been doing it my whole career.’
“But now that I’ve been here a couple years, it’s kind of normal that the center’s not on the center and we do different things like that. Being able to be flexible, that’s the great thing about having KP, he can do so many things defensively that he probably doesn’t get enough credit for.”
White continued to point at Porzingis as a reason why the Celtics also have the second-best offensive rating in the league. The big man is scoring 20.6 points per game while shooting a career-best 53.5 percent from the field and boasts the league’s 12th-best true shooting percentage (65.8).
Even though Porzingis has given Boston mismatches near the rim, the Celtics have still relied on 3-point shooting for their offensive success. The Celtics are shooting a league-high 42.8 3-point attempts per game while their 37.4 3-point percentage is 11th in the league.
However, White thinks Porzings’s play near the rim, along with Tatum’s and Brown’s, go hand-in-hand with their 3-point shooting and their overall offensive success.
“I think the cool part about the team, you never really know who it’s going to be, night in or night out,” White said. “Obviously, JT or JB are going to get their touches and get their shots. But they’re doing a great job of attracting so much attention and kicking it out to us. I feel like that’s the majority of our 3s. There’s the 1-on-1 3s and the stepback 3s that happen throughout the game, but I feel like the majority of our 3s and our looks are good looks from good shooters.
“KP has unlocked a new thing in our offense where, if they switch, we can just throw it to him and he’s basically unguardable,” White added. “So, continue to have that spacing, the freedom to make a play at the rim — JT and JB posting up more this year has allowed them to get different looks.
“Honestly, when the 3s don’t go in, it looks bad. But we’ve got a lot of different ways we can score now.”
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