What to make of the Derrick White Experience
So much good, so much bad…
Derrick White approached this regular season as an exciting 2nd year prospect. First expected to lead the teamâs bench unit and challenge for backcourt minutes alongside Dejounte Murray and DeMar DeRozan, then to help offset Murrayâs loss to an ACL tear, White succumbed to a preseason injury of his own, which has delayed and somewhat derailed his sophomore season. In Austin last year, and in limited time in San Antonio, Derrick showed off his decision-making skills and shooting ability, making him a potentially potent replacement for the teamâs All-Defense point-guard, though it hasnât worked out that way so far.
Simply put, his performance has not lived up to expectations. His per game stats are alarmingly low, at least in part due to only playing 18 minutes per game, though his production per 100 possessions is impressive.
Still, his actual impact on the teamâs ability to win games has been minimal, and that shows up better in plus-minus metrics. Fair warning, if you have a weak constitution you may need to avert your eyes.
Itâs difficult to parse whether this is just an issue of fit, a bad start, or something larger, because the Spurs have really only used him in one lineup for significant minutes. Heâs played alongside Bryn Forbes, DeMar DeRozan, Dante Cunningham, and LaMarcus Aldridge for 72 minutes, and that group has a net rating of -25.2 in that time. Derrick has appeared in 66 other 5-player lineups in his 12 games, but hasnât played more than 15 minutes with any of them.
At this point, thereâs a chance he just doesnât work next to DeMar. The Spursâ recent decision to move Derrick to the bench, and essentially treat him like DeMarâs backup at times, made it seem like thatâs what the team believed. Per NBA.com, In the 294 minutes DeMar has been on the court without Derrick since his return, the team has an offensive rating of 110.6, more than 4 points better than their overall offensive rating in that time. In the 134 minutes DeMar and Derrick have shared the court it has plummeted to an absurdly low 85.3.
Since being removed from the starting lineup after the loss to the Clippers on November 15th, Derrickâs minutes steadily dwindled, down to a nearly invisible 5 minutes and 22 seconds against the Bucks before picking back up against the Bulls and Timberwolves this week. In that time, Derrick has only shared the court with DeMar for 36 of his 100 minutes. The team was a -21 with both of them on the court, but a +18 in Derrickâs other 64 minutes. Even better, when Derrickâs been the primary ball handler over that stretch, that is, without DeMar or Bryn Forbes on the court, heâs a +17 in 56 minutes.
Thatâs great news, because it indicates the potential the team saw in Derrick is likely still there waiting to be tapped. But itâs also bad news, because DeMar plays a ton of minutes, 6th most in the league this year to be exact. If the two canât play together, Derrickâs utility and impact will be severely limited.
Itâs unlikely to be that simple, though. Part of the reason the offense has been so bad with Derrick and DeMar on the court is that Derrick is the 3rd worst shooting Point Guard in the league so far, per Cleaning the Glass (CTG), with an eFG% of 40.5. Despite projecting to be an above average shooter, heâs shot worse than, well, pretty much everybody. He has the 2nd lowest FG%, eFG% and TS% on the team and in comparison to the rest of the league, heâs 376th in FG%, 389th in eFG%, and 387th in TS%.
The thing is, Derrickâs not a bad shooter, and those numbers arenât reflective of his ability. His eFG%, for instance, was over 51 in the G-league, and over 60, albeit in a small sample size, in 17 games in San Antonio last year. He was certainly due for a little regression, but thatâs far too extreme to last. Heâs not going to continue to hit just 21.4% of his catch and shoot threes.
That helps explain why the offense has struggled so much with both Derrick and DeMar on the court. With his shot not falling, Derrickâs main contribution is his ability to run plays and facilitate, which he rightly doesnât get much chance to do alongside DeMar. Once heâs knocking down three pointers and hitting pull-up jumpers again, heâll be much more valuable playing off the ball.
It will still make sense to stagger their minutes, as theyâre easily the teamâs two best playmakers. But if the Spurs can figure out a way to keep them both on the court to close games, it would dramatically improve the teamâs ceiling, because Derrick is also easily the teamâs best defensive guard.
Even while struggling on the offensive end since returning from his injury, Derrickâs defensive impact has been undeniable. The teamâs defensive rating is 107.1 with him on the court and 110.6 when heâs off. They grab more defensive rebounds when he plays, but not enough to explain that much difference. He also grabs more steals than any other Spursâ guard, though again itâs not enough to cover such a large gap.
His real value appears to be in making the teamâs opponents miss more shots. In fact, with minimal difference in Spursâ opponentsâ shot distribution, when Derrickâs on the court, they shoot worse from almost every area.
The result of that overall drop in shooting percentages is that the Spurs hold their opponents to an eFG% of 52.6 when Derrickâs on the court, 1.6% lower than the teamâs average, per CTG. Without access to more sophisticated tracking data that would show changes to the openness of their opponentsâ shooters or a redistribution of shots from better shooters to worse shooters, itâs difficult to ascertain how sustainable that is.
Still, it largely makes sense in context. Derrick is bigger and quicker than both Patty Mills and Bryn Forbes, and his wingspan is nearly the same as DeMarâs, with much better defensive instincts. One easy way to see the difference between him and the teamâs other guards is in contested shots. Derrick contests nearly as many shots per 36 minutes as any two of Patty, Bryn, and DeMar combined. He doesnât get beat off the dribble nearly as often, and when he does, heâs much more capable of recovering back into the play. Heâs also far less vulnerable to being attacked on a mismatch, whether caused by transition matchups or switching on defense.
Fewer breakdowns at the point of attack means fewer rotations and fewer open shots. Heâs no Dejounte Murray, but what he brings to the table is unique on this team, which makes him one of its most important defenders.
None of this is a revelation. The Spurs are well aware that Derrickâs shot will start falling soon, and that heâs their best perimeter defender right now. Still, his playing time has been on a yoyo for weeks, which is definitely not the best way to get a young player into a rhythm. So what gives?
The crux of the issue is that Coach Pop and the Spurs often put less stock in a playerâs individual defensive impact than in their willingness to subsume themselves in the scheme. Players who canât or wonât execute as expected of them, especially young players, donât play. Until Derrick can do that consistently, his minutes will continue to be at risk.
The most obvious example is Derrickâs inexcusable foul on Giannis Antetokounmpo on an end-of-the-quarter heave 70 feet from the basket.
But he also reaches sometimes when he doesnât need to, goes for blocks and gives up open layups, and gets backcut (like everybody else on the roster, to be fair).
But for every mental error it seems, Derrick makes a play that the Spursâ other guards canât. This sequence is pretty much an encapsulation of what Derrick has brought to the table this year.
He misses the shot, badly, but then he sees that Patty has been beat deep, and sprints back into the play, preventing an easy layup. With a little help from Jakob Poeltl and Marco Belinelli, the Spurs get the ball back instead of giving up 2 points.
Thatâs how Derrick has maintained such a positive defensive impact, despite the occasional blunder, which speaks volumes about how truly valuable he could be for this squad. Assuming heâs able to clean up his decision-making and temper his aggression just a bit, he should quickly move past these simple mistakes.
Thereâs precedent for this, and we need look no further back than last season. Dejounte began the year playing 20-30 minutes per game, but saw his playing time decline in November and December before seeing a significant rise in January, which led to his assuming the mantle of starting point guard.
Derrickâs path forward is much less clear. Without an obvious ball handler for the 2nd unit, it probably makes the most sense to bring him off the bench. But if the offense continues to roll over and play dead whenever he shares the court with DeMar, there will be a hard cap on how many minutes he can get.
Given how far along Derrick already is, and that his game is more complete, if somewhat less breath-taking, than Dejounteâs, that would be tough spot for both him and the team. They donât have long to figure it out either. In a conference as tough as this yearâs West, every game matters, and the sooner they can settle into a comfortable rotation the better. For a Spursâ team still a hairâs breadth away from .500, it canât come soon enough.
* Stats from Basketball Reference, Cleaning The Glass, NBA.com and pbpStats.
Source: Pounding The Rock