Celtics Reportedly Think Derrick White Had Better Season Than Jaylen Brown Before 76ers Trade
The Boston Celtics traded Jaylen Brown and not Derrick White this offseason.
It turns out, there was a reason for it.
"The Celtics felt that even though Jaylen Brown was talking about himself for MVP and there was this MVP campaign for Jaylen Brown, the Celtics did not feel that Jaylen had the best season on their team," ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported Wednesday on the Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast (11:20 mark).
"And I don't mean Jayson Tatum. They felt like Derrick White had a better season."
The update came after ESPN's Shams Charania reported Boston traded Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.
A Brown trade felt somewhat inevitable after the Celtics included him in their trade offer for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Reports did not indicate they included White, but the Milwaukee Bucks ultimately decided to trade Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat.
White also wasn't traded after he was included in some rumors earlier in the offseason.
Still, it is rather surprising to see Boston saw White as the one who had the better season in 2025-26. After all, Brown led the team with Tatum sidelined for much of the campaign and averaged career-highs in points (28.7), rebounds (6.9) and assists (5.1) per game.
He was a Second-Team All-NBA selection and finished sixth in MVP voting.
By comparison, White averaged 16.5 points, 5.4 assists and 4.4 rebounds a night while also dealing with shooting concerns. He connected on just 39.4 percent of his shots from the field and 32.7 percent of his triples, which was an issue since much of his offensive value in past seasons came from his outside shooting when defenders collapsed on Tatum and Brown.
White hit 38.4 percent of his three-pointers the previous season.
However, he was also an All-Defensive First Team selection and finished sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season. Windhorst explained Boston believed he was the one who had the best season because he impacted winning more than Brown.
That is up for debate, but the fact the Celtics decided to move on from one and not the other is not.
