Class: Senior
Ht: 6-foot-5
Wt: 200 pounds
2016-17 Stats: 18.1 points, 4.4 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, 1.2 steals
HOW HE OPERATES
Derrick White’s presence as a bonafide first-round threat is one of the best, most unlikely stories in the NBA Draft. The Legend High School product spent just one year at a major Division I program – CU – after playing the bulk of his college career at Division II University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. But he is here now, and the First Team All-Pac-12 selection has made waves, starting with a solid showing at the Portsmouth Invitational and then at the NBA Combine. During the season White was a stat-stuffer, contributing significantly to five stat categories every night. A solid two-way player who was seventh in the conference in blocks and 14th in steals, White was also named to the Pac-12’s All-Defensive Team.
Playing point guard at CU has benefitted White most. He’s got good size for that position, and in his season with the Buffs proved he was heady enough to play it as well. White’s reads as a scorer in pick-and-roll situations were solid. He knew when to pull up and take a short jumper or floater. He knew when to take it all the way to the rim. He didn’t make many mistakes in shot selection out of screen-roll situations, which was his most-used action against man-to-man defenses. His passing out of pick-and-roll, however, needs to be sharpened. Meanwhile, White is one of the better finishers in the draft. He finished well with both hands. And though he is just 200 pounds, White was strong in going to the rim, regularly finishing through contact and over bigger players. He had 23 “and ones” during the season, which led the team and was one of the highest numbers in the conference. White will continue to work on his jump shot, because while he was near 40 percent shooter from the 3-point line, he was just 38.3 percent on jumpers of all kinds. White made up for that by generally being unstoppable at the rim in transition, scoring on 60 percent of his attempts. In transition, White showed great end-to-end speed and effortless finishing, including floaters and a few dunks when openings presented themselves.
Defensively, CU did a fair amount of switching ball screens, but when White was asked to get through screens he was good. Even when slowed by the pick, he showed an ability to recover and still get a good hand up on the shot attempt. White moved his feet well in space, stayed in front of his man and was excellent in blocking the shot to finish off the play. A big chunk of his blocked shots were on his own man. As a playmaker, he’ll continue to grow. White showed good vision and the ability to make passes of all kinds on-time and on-target. And he was good at drawing defenders and then kicking to open shooters or dropping passes of for layups and dunks. Bad pass turnovers were also part of his makeup, however.
HIS BEST FIT
White can play at many different speeds, but a team that likes to push the pace is going to give him the best chance to put all of his talents on display. A team that is in immediate needs for depth at point guard is a good landing spot for the CU standout. He can play on or off the ball.