The Celtics Are Now Down To Just One Week To Stop Screwing Around And Pay Derrick White His Well Earned Money

Brian Babineau. Getty Images.

I think it would be fair to suggest that the 2023 offseason has been quite the rollercoaster for the Boston Celtics. Any time you have multiple trades involving your best players that none of us saw coming, I think that's an accurate description of how things have gone so far.

One of the issues that has kind of gone under the radar as a result of these big name trades is of course the pending Derrick White extension. You may remember back at the beginning of August, so after the Smart trade but before the Holiday trade, Derrick White was on ESPN where he was asked point blank about this extension, and I found his answer pretty interesting

While he gave about as PR answer as you could expect, the timeline is of course the most important part. White became eligible for an extension at the end of September, and the deadline for him to come to an agreement before this season is 11:59pm on October 23rd. That is essentially one week from right now.

Here's what I know. I know that you have Brad talking about how the Celts have the green light to spend/add whatever if it means contending and winning a title

Then you have the owner of the team repeatedly talk about how they don't give a shit about the luxury tax and the second apron, and that they will cut the check and pay whatever they have to in order to compete. Wyc even used the words "6 year window". Well, you know what goes into that 6 year window? Keeping your best players on the roster.

By all accounts, the Celts essentially made Derrick White untradeable this summer. They moved both of the other guards around him and I'm sure teams probably asked about White's availability too. On some level, that should tell us all we need to know about his future. If the Celts weren't planning on extending him, why not trade him? You don't trade Smart without extending White in my opinion, even after trading for Holiday. The age difference there is certainly important. 

So far we've seen Brad trade and then extend Porzingis. They talked about already entertaining an extension for Holiday. Pritchard just got his own rookie extension. Well, to me this entire experiment is also dependent on White getting an extension of his own. What you clearly want to avoid is a situation like we're maybe seeing in IND with Buddy Hield. They never extended him early, and he got to the last year of his guaranteed deal to where now if the Pacers end up moving him, his value has taken a hit strictly because he can leave at the end of this season.

Derrick White's contract situation currently looks like this

In my opinion, you need to be taking care of this as soon as possible. Who knows, maybe he wants to bet on himself this season and then sign something next summer, but I truly feel like as long as the Celts don't dick around with their extension offer, this is something everyone should be able to agree on. I wouldn't call this a Grant RFA situation where you are maybe overpaying for what he ultimately brings. There is simply no denying the two way impact Derrick White has on this team. From his production to his improvement to how he's embraced being a Celtic, this is the exact type of player you should be extending.

It's also important to remember that with the upcoming roster building restrictions, it's not as if the Celts are going to have a ton of tools available to them to replace a player like White, should he leave for nothing. If they can't extend him early, they'll be faced with the tough call of maybe trading him early as a way to protect the asset. You simply cannot let White walk out the door for nothing at the end of next season.

In terms of what they should offer, it's certainly not my money so I say the maximum you're allowed to or pretty damn close to it. Given how their roster looks right now, there's no point in haggling over a few million. Wyc has said he'll pay whatever, so it's time to live up to that. 

I truly think that if Wyc is serious about this "6 year window" the trades they've made this summer should not be at the expense of keeping Derrick White, but in addition to. I would feel much more comfortable if we went into the season with Porzingis/Pritchard/White extended and then we'll see what Holiday ultimately wants to do about his player option/extension this summer. If there's one thing we know about Brad so far as the boss, it's that he loves extending his own players. Given the assets they gave up to intially trade for DWhite combined with how well he's played and what a perfect fit he's proven to be, I see no reason why we won't get the Shams/Woj bomb about a new 3 year extension before the season starts.

If the Celts truly want us to believe they are "all in" and will do whatever it takes to win that elusive banner then