The Boston Celtics entered Media Day on Monday with a roster that looks significantly different from last season. Paul George replaces Jaylen Brown. Mitchell Robinson fills the frontcourt need. Jayson Tatum is healthy again after the Achilles rupture that stole most of his 2025-26 campaign.
But one of the quieter storylines heading into training camp involves a player who was already here. Derrick White had one of the worst shooting seasons of his career last year. How he responds to it could matter just as much as any roster addition.
White was asked about it Monday. His answer started with humor and ended with honesty.
White Addresses the Numbers
The stats were hard to ignore. White connected on fewer than 40 percent of his shots from the field last season. His three-point percentage dropped to 32.7.
When reporters asked what he worked on over the summer, White gave the kind of answer that gets a room to lean in.
“It’s something I think I corrected, hopefully,” White said.
Then came the follow-up. What, specifically, did he change?
“You guys would look at me crazy if I said I didn’t figure it out,” White said, smiling. “So, I was just trying to tell you guys what you want to hear.”
The room laughed. White let the moment sit before offering something more genuine. He said he went back to the fundamentals that worked for him in previous seasons and tried to stop chasing results that were not coming.
“And not try to ride the wave as much,” White said. “Just a bunch of those little things that kind of combined to a bad shooting year.”
Why It Matters for the Celtics
White is not a role player who can quietly have an off year without consequences. He is one of the most important pieces of what Boston does on both ends of the floor. His defense has never been in question. His ability to guard up a position, disrupt passing lanes, and anchor possessions on that end remains elite.
But the Celtics need the offensive version to come back. With Brown gone, the scoring burden shifts across the roster. Tatum will carry the heaviest load. George will be asked to fill the number two role. Behind them, the Celtics need White and Payton Pritchard to provide consistent production from the backcourt.
White said he went back and studied what went wrong. He identified the habits that led to the decline and worked on correcting them throughout the summer. The specifics stayed vague, but the self-awareness was evident.
Final Word for the Celtics
Derrick White had a bad shooting year. He said so himself. The numbers confirmed it. The Celtics need that to change.
White spent the summer going back to what worked before. Whether the corrections hold over 82 games is the question training camp will begin to answer.
The honesty was refreshing. The Celtics have reason to believe him.
Celtics’ Derrick White Makes Honest Admission After Difficult Season