White and Tatum have demonstrated that they make a good team.
Play initiation is not solely the point guard’s role in the modern NBA. Instead, it is expected of players all around the court to make the correct read or initiate the right action in reaction to a defensive coverage.
The creation of a play, action, or offensive sequence frequently doesn’t depend on just one player, especially a point guard. A successful offensive frequently involves two-man games, especially if a team has access to a variety of two-man actions throughout the course of the season.
The most sensible choice is to attack out of the pick-and-roll before determining what shot the defense is providing you. This is known as a big-plus-guard action. But as the NBA develops, so does the way offense is produced. Because of the improvement in all-around talent among wings and bigs, inverted actions—where a smaller player screens for a bigger player—are now widespread in the league.
Marcus Smart was never a premier Celtics table-setter, in reality. Their finest passer was him. Additionally, he occasionally had a wild dimes. But Smart is not a playmaking guard. However, in order to allow others to pick up some of the slack, Boston will need to change some of their offensive philosophies. Derrick White, who will take Smart’s place in the starting lineup, will bear the majority of that burden.
Fortunately, White has been a member of the team for a sufficient amount of time to have established a two-man game with Jayson Tatum.
White had 28 more assists than Jaylen Brown, Tatum’s next closest helper, who contributed 78 made baskets for Tatum’s 186 points last season. Tatum fed White 53 times for a total of 134 points in return. So, according to PBP Stats, Tatum and White scored 320 points in total throughout the season.
White and Tatum together make up a versatile one-two punch that can attack off the catch, the rip-through, in the short-roll, or by extending their dribble to get “the next right read.”
Before slipping the contact and accepting the ball from White on the short roll, Tatum sets a second screen, or “77 action,” as shown in the video. Tatum is then free to work in space, giving him the opportunity to attack the rim and induce a defensive collapse.
White can consistently spring Tatum free on the perimeter while also forcing mismatches to offer the All-NBA forward a better chance of success. Ime Udoka valued reliable screens from smaller players during his first season with the Celtics.
There are innumerable examples of Tatum and White’s relationship from the previous season. The play when White cuts off-ball and then immediately kicks the rock back to Tatum, who is ghosting his cut from the weakside baseline, is where I’ll end it. Tatum’s deft movement, White’s selfless passing, and the perfect shot to show a connection between two players make up this clip.
Tatum and White can connect up in a plethora of offensive scenarios and variants, the majority of which will only increase the Celtics’ adaptability and unpredictability.
It’s not usual to run an offense through a wing/guard pairing in order to achieve success. Any hypothetical two-man game between White and Tatum, though, would only be one element of the offensive strategy employed by the Celtics because they have so many tools at their disposal and so many excellent passers.
In an ideal scenario, the Celtics might rely on several two-man games throughout the course of the season. The possibilities are endless with Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, and Al Horford in the lineup.
Still, the Celtics will be able to concentrate and zero in during half-court sets if they have a core of one or two sets of two-man actions.
Despite the fact that neither White nor Tatum are elite playmakers, they have both demonstrated the ability to initiate plays. Both players excelled last season when they held the ball in their hands to start plays or sequences and made reads based on what the defense gave up.
Tatum and White working together as play starters would only give the Celtics more options on offense if Joe Mazzulla chose to do so. The interesting aspect will come when we start to see who gels with Porzingis on the court and whether or not those extra two-man actions can be used to improve White and Tatum’s play-starting throughout the upcoming season.
