Derrick White Thanks Draymond Green After Breaking Celtics Season 3 Point Record

MEMPHIS — Derrick White called the 2022 NBA Finals his lowest moment.

A 5-for-8 start from three in Game 1 buoyed his overall percentage, but White closed 5-for-14, missing all five threes as his minutes dropped in Games 5-6. The Celtics lost and decided they couldn’t play White because the Warriors could ignore him. That fueled a summer that changed his career.

“What happened in the Finals and how I was being guarded on that stage, it was one of the lowest points. I told Draymond after the Olympics that he kind of changed my life,” White said when asked by CLNS about the turning point in his shooting career. “They weren’t guarding me, so I had to go into that summer, me and my trainer Marcus Mason, and just focus on being consistent, and from that point on I’ve been able to get better and better.”

Nearly three years later — White hit his 246th three of the 2024-25 season and broke Isaiah Thomas’ Celtics single-season three point record from 2017. Modern three-point volume makes those records falling inevitable, White already imagining Jayson Tatum and Payton Pritchard hot on his heels surpassing him. But for a 31.2% shooter with Boston through the 2022 regular season and playoffs to set the standard speaks to White’s growth into an indispensable part of the Celtics’ core. He became that level of a shooter.

Yet randomness led White to break the record in Memphis one game after returning to an ovation in San Antonio, where he began his career. The Spurs reluctantly let him go when they decided to pivot toward and rebuild and everyone from Gregg Popovich down loved watching him surpass the wildest expectations his start predicted. White, even while 3-for-11 from three in an unspectacular night, settled at 38.1% for this season. Since 2022-23, he’s hit 38.6% of 1,534 three-point attempts. That’s an increase from 3.7 tries per game to 6.8 since 2022.

“I had moments in San Antonio where I was up-and-down, so I just think more consistency is what I was focusing on, and obviously now, I’m shooting a lot more threes than I probably thought I would ever shoot,” White said earlier this season, reflecting on the three-year anniversary of the deal.

When Marcus Mason and White reconvened before the 2023-24 season — his breakout as a borderline star and champion — they focused on gaining weight, his shift to point guard and the shot. The overhaul came one year prior, a higher release point, less of the lean evident from his Spurs shooting form alongside more fluidity throughout his motion.

With so much discussion about White’s confidence driving his recent success, it’s fitting that the biggest mechanical change came stepping into shots more assertively rather than fading away from the basket following through. Shot guru and former Celtic assistant Ben Sullivan also contributed to the adjustments he began in 2022 following Will Hardy’s departure as his workout coach.

But the turnover continued, with Ime Udoka’s firing, Hardy’s departure and Sullivan’s following 2023. Even Joe Mazzulla, whose ascension to head coach and belief White often mentions as critical to his own emergence, struggled to find consistent opportunities to play White late in games in 2023. Despite clear strides and a helpful skill set, Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon often appeared in front of him.

“Shooting is also so mental and finding your comfort zone within the offense, within your teammates,” Sullivan told CLNS in 2022. “Whose turn is to shoot or how are we running the play? Just figuring all that stuff out and then that plays as much of a role in the ability to shoot as anything else.”

There’s as much stability in White’s role as any player can dream of now. He starts every game, receives encouragement to shoot any available three and the gravity Tatum and Jaylen Brown draw consistently allows White to take 4.4 wide open threes per game, or catch defenses off-balance in rotation. Hardy recently noted that White can also attack mismatches the way Brown and Tatum do. White’s bigger scoring nights, 16 with 25 points or more over the past three years, came attacking inside with his floater and outside with his rejuvenated three. He also passes — serving 10 assists on Monday.

Like the Celtics three seasons later, the three became his weapon of choice under Mazzulla, but he’s not overly reliant on it. Still, there’s some disbelief evident from White over the amount of threes he takes now, 9.1 per game, his outsized role on a perennial contender and his thriving friendship and on-court partnership with Tatum, who’s emerging as an MVP contender playing often out of two-man games with White. The once-USA teammate who he clicked with, but didn’t immediately see himself becoming best friends with.

Or, together, avenging the worst life of their lives.

But on Monday, looking at Tatum in the rear view for total threes this season, Hauser and White teased Tatum from across the locker room. You’re right there, Hauser yelled, you can make history yourself.

“We talked about it on the plane,” White said. “It’s pretty cool that there are three of us so close to doing something special. Honestly, just looking back at my career, I never thought I’d be in this position. So I’m just thankful for the coaching staff, thankful for the guys on this team and I know I wouldn’t be able to do it without them. So I’ll hold it for now until one of them breaks my record, so that’s cool.”