For the first time in nine years, the Boston Celtics won’t have Marcus Smart at their disposal when they take the court this

season. The former longest-tenured Celtic was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies this summer in the three-team trade that

landed Kristaps Porzingis in Beantown.

While the deal greatly bolstered Boston’s frontcourt, it left a glaring hole at point guard — one that the C’s believe Derrick

White will be able to fill.

“Derrick will be our starting point guard,” coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters on Wednesday, via The Athletic’s Jay King.

White serving as a starter is far from a foreign occurrence. The 29-year-old guard appeared in all 82 games in 2022-23,

starting 70 contests alongside Smart.

White saw bumps in every major statistical category when compared to his 28-game showing the season prior, averaging

12.4 points, 3.9 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 0.7 steals.

Of course, Smart was a stalwart on the defensive end during his Celtics career. Yet, many would argue that White was

actually Boston’s best on-ball defender last season, earning All-Defensive Second Team honors.

Offensively, White is more than capable of playing on the ball. His best season as a distributor came in 2021-22 when he

averaged 5.6 assists per game as a member of the San Antonio Spurs. Still, look for the Celtics to feature numerous

ballhandlers this season.

Barring a trade, reigning Sixth Man of the Year Malcolm Brogdon should be up for the task, as he started 146 games at point

guard in three seasons with the Indiana Pacers.

Then there’s always Jayson Tatum, who become more and more comfortable operating as a point forward in recent seasons,

evidenced by his career-high 4.6 assists per game this past year.

READ MORE:

How Celtics, Malcolm Brogdon moving on after trade rumors, per Joe Mazzulla

CAMBRIDGE — The Celtics’ offseason is seemingly finally winding down after some huge changes to the roster this

summer. Jaylen Brown’s supermax extension was the last expected item on the to-do list, and now the team can look

forward to recharging their batteries ahead of training camp in a couple months.

That means looking at the construction of the current roster with Kristaps Porzingis now in the fold while Marcus Smart is

off to Memphis. Grant Williams is also off to a new home with the Mavericks. Among the many factors includes Malcolm

Brogdon, who was heavily rumored to be traded this offseason. He was even the likely guard moved in a three-team deal

with the Clippers in the Porzingis deal before that fell apart.

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Celtics legend Kevin Garnett fires back at critics of Jaylen Brown’s $304 million contract extension

Kevin Garnett is one of the NBA’s all-time 75 greatest players. The Boston Celtics legend won a title with Beantown in 2008

and is considered one of the best all-around and best defensive players in the team’s history. Recently, Garnett decided to

share his true thoughts on critics of one of the Celtics’ current top stars: Jaylen Brown.

One such critic is longtime NBA analyst Ric Bucher, who shared a highly critical take on Brown and the Celtics’ title chances

since his $304 million dollar supermax contract signing. Brown, for his part, has remained undeterred. He shared a

stark warning to his NBA peers recently stating that he hasn’t played his best basketball yet.

On Wednesday afternoon, a fired-up Garnett took specific issue with a tweet from anonymous front office members stating

that Brown is not even one of the best players on the Celtics.

Jaylen Brown averaged 26.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting 49.1% from the field last season for the

Celtics. His scoring average fell to 22.7 points per game in the playoffs while the rest of his stats remained similar.

Next season, the Celtics will need to find a replacement for another stalwart defender who may remind some of the Garnett-

era Celtics in Marcus Smart, who is now with the Memphis Grizzlies. Swingman Derrick White is projected to take Smart’s

place in the lineup, adding outside shooting, a high basketball IQ and more to the void that has been left.

Brown found himself in a classroom at MIT teaching financial literacy prior to signing his historic deal. Now he will seek to

prove the doubters wrong again this fall.