Why Erik Spoelstra thinks Derrick White is NBA’s most underrated player

Boston Celtics

“He’s an absolute winner, no matter what role you put him in.”

By Conor Roche

December 20, 2025 | 1:21 PM

3 minutes to read

After Derrick White put 33 points on Friday night, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra did more than just tip his cap to the Celtics’ guard.

Spoelstra called White the NBA’s most underrated player following the Celtics’ 129-116 victory over the Heat.

‘I think he’s the most underrated player in the league,” Spoelstra told reporters. “He’s an absolute winner, no matter what role you put him in. Tonight, obviously, he showed that he could be a scorer in all the different facets from 3, pick and roll mistakes, taking one one-on-one opportunities against a perceived mismatch.”

White’s scoring and shooting certainly played a role in the outcome of Friday’s game. He scored a game-high 33 points, while his nine made 3-pointers were a career high. Two of those 3-pointers came in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, helping the Celtics expand their lead into double digits.

But White also shined defensively. His four blocks were also a game high, with a pair of those blocks coming in the midst of a Heat run.

That’s what really stuck out to Spoelstra, who was part of the USA Basketball coaching staff with White when the team won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

“Defensively, he does so many things,” Spoelstra continued. “There were a lot of opportunities we had in the paint. He stripped down, I think he’s the best shot blocking guard in the league. If you have all your talent out there like we had in USA Basketball, he can just fit in, you know, and find a way to make winning plays, and he certainly did that tonight.”

This actually isn’t the first time Spoelstra has called White the NBA’s most underrated player. He also made that claim back in March, when the Celtics defeated the Heat behind an 18-point performance from White.

“Derrick White, I think, is the most underrated player in the league,” Spoelstra told reporters at the time. “He just has timely, winning plays, over and over and over. Right when this game was in the balance, I think he made some big plays.”

Beyond their shared experience with USA Basketball, Spoelstra also got pretty acquainted with how good a player White can be when the Celtics and Heat met in the Eastern Conference finals in two straight seasons (2022, 2023). In Game 6 of the 2022 Eastern Conference finals, White scored 22 points off the bench as he had his best game as a member of the Celtics at the time.

Of course, a year later, White nearly gave the Heat one of the most devastating losses in NBA history when he had a putback tip-in to help the Celtics win Game 6 of the 2023 Eastern Conference finals. That play helped the Celtics even the series after trailing 3-0, but the Heat won Game 7.

Over two years later, White has firmly established himself as a key player for the Celtics, even if some might think his four-year, $125.9 million contract might make him one of the more underpaid players in the league. However, White struggled earlier this season with taking on a heavier offensive role, averaging 16 points per game while shooting 36.3 percent from the field through the end of November.

But White’s offensive output has been much stronger in December. He’s scoring 24.7 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from deep through seven games so far this month.

White sensed that Friday would be another strong outing for him, saying he “felt good from the beginning.”

“You just trust the process, get the looks that we were getting, kind of trying to figure out, like, what they want to do defensively,” White added. “Obviously, Miami does a pretty good job of forcing turnovers and being aggressive, so seeing what they were doing defensively, and then I feel like by the fourth quarter, we kind of figured out some things and were able to get some good looks. And then it helps when you make them.”