The Boston Celtics suddenly find themselves facing an entirely different timeline following the loss of Jayson Tatum to an Achilles injury, and their second-round exit at the hands of the New York Knicks. Not only is this season over for them, but next year might be, too.
This harsh reality opens the door to any number of possibilities, including the Golden State Warriors swooping in with an offer to pry a perfect fit out of Boston. And it isn’t Kristaps Porzingis.
It’s Derrick White.
Derrick White is perfect for the Warriors
Golden State has a laundry list of needs entering the offseason. Frontcourt size, shooting, wing defense, and secondary playmaking loom as the biggest voids they need to fill. White checks all of those boxes, with the exception of frontcourt size.
Pay no mind to his Game 6 dud against the Knicks. He disemboweled their defense in the previous three tilts, and is coming off a regular season in which he once again guarded at an All-Defense level while averaging 16.4 points and 4.8 assists on 38.4 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
Everything he does is basketball Nirvana in Warriors Land. He is an intuitive off-ball cutter, connective passer, deadeye shooter from all over, and a defensive workaholic who busts his butt in transition. No regular rotation player standing under 6’7” averaged more blocks per game this past year.
Golden State would be beyond fortunate to have him. The question is: How does it get him?
Here’s how the Dubs can trade for Derrick White
Any deal for White begins with a Jonathan Kuminga sign-and-trade. It is a little bit complicated because of a weird NBA rule that lowers Kuminga’s outgoing salary for Golden State. This scenario also requires a third team, since Boston won’t have a ton of interest in the 22-year-old tweener forward.
Sussing out that third team shouldn’t be difficult. The Brooklyn Nets have more cap space than anyone, a glaring need for high-upside talent, and could be open to sign-and-trade talks if the Warriors make it clear they’ll match any offer Kuminga receives on the restricted-free-agent market.
Sending him to Brooklyn on a per-year salary in the neighborhood of $20 to $25 million sets the stage for a deal. Kuminga would count as only 50 percent of that number for Golden State, so Moses Moody or Buddy Hield also need to be involved to make the math work on White, who’s slated to earn $28.1 million next year. Either would likely go to Boston, though Brooklyn has the cap space to gobble them up, too.
From there, the Warriors would shower the Celtics in first-round picks. They can trade up to four this summer. Offering 2026, 2028 and 2030 (if it lands in the top 20) feels like the place to start. If the Nets are willing to move the No. 27 or No. 28 pick to Boston as part of landing Kuminga, Golden State would be netting the Celtics a total of four first-round picks.
This is the overall framework: Kuminga (sign-and-trade), another salary, and three first-round picks. It’s a lot on its face, but Kuminga isn’t long for the Warriors anyway, and their 2026 first-round pick will be in the bottom 10 (at least) if they’re adding White to a core of Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and Brandin Podziemski.
Of course, this raises another question…
Would the Celtics trade White?
Boston shouldn’t be looking to move White in a vacuum. But its future no longer exists in a vacuum.
Tatum will probably miss all of next year. That likely accelerates a cost-cutting process considered inevitable after 2025-26. The Celtics are nearly $20 million into the ultra-punitive second apron—and that’s without Al Horford, an unrestricted free agent, on the books. Conventional wisdom suggests they will slash expenses rather than pay through the teeth for a non-contender.
Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis are the preferred forms of collateral damage. But neither of them has a ton of standalone value on their current deals. They might even be considered net negatives.
White is a different story. He is about to start a four-year, $118.4 million extension that runs through his age-34 season, and that will never be worth more than 18.2 percent of the salary cap. Boston can get a caps-lock HAUL for him, positioning itself to reorient the roster around Tatum and Jaylen Brown once the former is healthy.
Perhaps White is a non-starter in trade talks if the Celtics are planning on one gap year. At the same time, they can’t be sure what Tatum will look like in 2026-27. They could actually be steering into a two-year break from title contention. If that’s at all in play, it behooves them to entertain every possible scenario.
The Warriors offering Moody and three—or, if the Nets include No. 27 or No. 28 for Kuminga, even four—first-round picks would certainly demand a meeting of Boston’s braintrust. And if the Celtics bite, Golden State instantly vaults to the tippy top of the NBA’s 2025-26 championship-contender tiers.
Dan Favale is a Senior NBA Contributor for FanSided and National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.