San Antonio Spurs invest in Derrick White’s trajectory with 4-year extension

The San Antonio Spurs are investing in Derrick White’s future with a contract extension.

The San Antonio Spurs are in a transition period after missing the playoffs for the first time in 23 years. LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan are still on the roster, but their best days are clearly behind them, and the Spurs are moving into a new era built around some of their more promising youngsters.

One such player, Derrick White, reportedly just earned an impressive show of faith from the front office.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Spurs have agreed to a four-year, $73 million extension with the 26-year-old White.

Derrick White gets paid by the San Antonio Spurs

This is a slightly inflated deal for White, though he clearly has potential and holds a lot of value to the current Spurs roster.

Last season, the young guard averaged 11.3 points, 3.5 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game on .458/.366/.853 shooting splits — hardly superstar numbers but efficient enough to indicate an upward trajectory.

Those notions were only enforced by what White did in the 2019 NBA Playoffs, and how he proved to be a gamer yet again in the NBA bubble. In the Spurs’ last playoff series, White upped his game to 15.0 points, 3.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game on 54.7 percent shooting from the field, and in this year’s bubble environment in Orlando, he was on a roll until he injured his toe:

When San Antonio turned the offense over to him in the bubble, the results were very promising. White getting more money than OG Anunoby is objectively odd, but this is a good deal for him and for the Spurs, who should still have plenty of cap space in a summer where there won’t really be many top-tier free agents to choose from anyway.

The market value here isn’t ideal, but it’s also a wise investment for the Spurs, who are committing to the long-dreaded rebuild through youth.