You can call the kids on the Grading The Week team a lot of things (and you have), but don’t call us homers.
Unless Derrick White is involved.
With Boston’s big Buffalo? Guilty. Guilty as charged. When our favorite former CU Buff/former UCCS Mountain Lion/former Legend High Titan is on the docket, our level-headed, crack staff is about as objective as Hawk Harrelson calling White Sox games.
So, yeah, if the Nuggets couldn’t put a ring on it during the NBA Playoffs, GTW is happy to see White, a native of Parker, finally reach the mountaintop as a key cog of the Boston Celtics’ 18th title team.
At 29, White keeps writing a script worthy of a biopic — from barely recruited out of high school, to a late growth spurt, to a meteoric rise from CU to drinking champagne as a guard with the most storied franchise in pro hoops. The Legend alum keeps stacking legendary moments.
Dude’s living a dream. So why not add the Dream Team to the narrative, while we’re up?
Derrick White + Paris 2024 — A.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, White is “in the mix” to replace Kawhi Leonard on Team USA this summer if the latter isn’t healthy enough for the Summer Games.
If the basketball fates are kind, Team GTW thinks our guy, objectively, would be a perfect fit.
Why? While White might not offer the volume firepower of Kawhi, a roster with LeBron, Anthony Edwards and Steph Curry already has too few shots for too many stars. Team USA could use a “glue guy,” unselfish to the core, someone who’ll sacrifice his stats for a “W” on the scoreboard. Check and check.
Plus, we already know White’s a good fit with Team USA guard Jrue Holiday, his Boston teammate. And he’d give the U.S. staff another potential stopper, as Holiday is currently the only backcourt representative on the Olympic men’s hoops squad from the NBA’s All-Defensive first or second teams. If you’re not going to send Alex Caruso to Paris, you might as well send Parker’s finest.
Nathan MacKinnon’s candor — A-minus
The only thing Nathan MacKinnon cuts through better than NHL defenses is layers of crapola.
To wit: During a radio appearance on TSN 1050 on Tuesday, the Avalanche star said out loud what a lot of Avs fans have been thinking for weeks.
“It feels like 10 years ago we actually did win (the Stanley Cup),” MacKinnon said. “I just think when you feel like you have teams (that can) win and you don’t, it just feels like a waste of a season.
“It feels like that again this year for us. I felt like we were good enough to win, and we didn’t. It just leaves a really bitter taste in your mouth.”
No kidding. The Avs, as defending champs, were upset in the first round of the ’23 playoffs by Seattle in seven games. This past spring, Colorado made quick work of Winnipeg, eliminating the Jets in five games, but was knocked out in the second round by a familiar nemesis in the Dallas Stars and a familiar playoff gremlin in coach Pete DeBoer.
Mack The Knife totaled a low-for-him five points over a six-game series loss to Dallas and on “The Jeff Marek Show” this week, he put some of the blame for the setback on himself.
“I didn’t produce the way I needed to in that series. Just wasn’t good enough,” he said. “Just couldn’t get the puck in the net, that was a tough team, good goalie, but yeah, got to be better.”
Notching 140 points over the regular season and likely a Hart Trophy sure doesn’t sound like a waste to the GTW crew, but that’s Nate being Nate. And why the Avs’ championship window is open for as long as No. 29’s still flying down the ice.
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