The Boston Celtics have one of the best starting five in the NBA.
However, the national media and fans outside of Boston seem to never give the Celtics their flowers, despite being the overwhelming favorites to repeat as NBA champions this season.
It’s easy to see how Derrick White might be overlooked on a star-studded Celtics team featuring Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis, but the guard’s key contributions night in and night out haven’t gone unnoticed among his peers.
The Athletic on Tuesday released its 2025 anonymous player poll, and White earned the second-most votes with 7.4% for the league’s most underrated player behind only Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons, who earned 8.8% of the vote.
“The Celtics’ Derrick White, who tied Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams for the ‘Underrated’ win last year, is the only player in the 2024 top four to maintain that sort of standing here,” the poll reported. “Given that his summer included an NBA title and an Olympic gold medal with Team USA, it makes sense that he’s considered less underrated than before.”
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Anyone who watched White during the Celtics’ playoff run to capture Banner 18 last season can attest to his value on one of the best NBA teams. White averaged a career-high 16.4 points, along with 4.8 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game this season.
White wasn’t the only Celtics player to garner votes from his peers. Jrue Holiday was tied for fifth place with 2.9% of the vote, Payton Pritchard was one of six players in the next tier at 2.2% of the vote and superstar forwards Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum received 1.5% each.
Pritchard was not only recognized by his peers but also by the league. The Celtics guard was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year on Tuesday.
Boston also came in third place, behind the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors, for best organization in the league, and Joe Mazzulla received the fourth-most votes for best coach in the league. It’s worth noting that players were not allowed to vote for their organization or coach in this portion of the poll.
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“There are little things he takes advantage of,” one player said of Mazzulla, per the poll. “It seems like he thinks about the game very strategically. He takes advantage of every single, tiny, little thing that he can.”
