Breaking Down Duke’s Dereck Lively II
Lively would be the best rim protector in this draft if it wasn’t for Victor Wembanyama. His ability to dominate the paint on both ends of the floor gives him a high floor in the NBA.
Here are three skills that should translate to the NBA.
Defensive Versatility
Amongst all centers in college basketball, Lively is the best defensive prospect. He’s a special rim protector that averages 2.4 blocks in 20.6 minutes per game with a ridiculous 12.7 block percentage. His shot-blocking statistics closely resembles Anthony Davis out of Kentucky and Jaren Jackson Jr out of Michigan State when they were both freshman in college.
Standing at 7-foot-1 with a ridiculous 7-foot-8 wingspan, he has ridiculous measurables with mobility and great defensive instincts. Out of a 156 prospects eligible for the 2023 NBA draft on my measurement sheet, Lively has the second longest wingspan as he’s only behind Wembanyama. Outside of his elite rim protection, he has shown the ability to step out onto the perimeter and defend in space late into the shot clock.
He has great footwork and knows how to move his feet. Late in the season, he has looked great as a defender in the pick and roll. Does a good job of shutting down the roller and the ball-handler. He’s great in the drop while also having the ability to occasionally blitz the ball-handler or hard hedge a screen. Lively has a chance to be one of the best defensive bigs in the NBA.
Finishing Ability
Lively is the ultimate lob target with unreal efficiency around the rim. He’s currently shooting a ridiculous 77.4% at the rim which ranks him in the 98th percentile in all of college basketball. He had 58 dunks this year which ranked him 16th in all of division one basketball. He generates easy points at the rim off of lobs and put-backs.
On the flip side of things, he only made 13 layups all year so relatively every basket by him this year was a dunk. He excels as a roll-man out of the pick and roll due to his quickness rolling to the rim, his improved processing speed, and being an elite lob threat at the rim.
He still needs to add some strength so he can improve his screen setting and ability to finish through contact but that’ll come as his frame continues to fill out. The 7-footer doesn’t project to have a big role on offense due to some of his scoring limitations and lack of creation skills but his elite efficiency and finishing ability gives him an easy role in the NBA that every team desires to have.
Shooting Potential
This may come as a shock to some, but Lively will have stretch big ability in the NBA. He took a total of 13 threes this year and it felt as if the coaching staff truly didn’t want him shooting jumpers at any point this season, even from the mid-range. He had a very limited role for this Duke team but when watching back his AAU film, he looks extremely comfortable shooting the ball and has a projectable shooting stroke.
Back in 2021, with Team Final he shot 31.6% from three and 37% on unguarded catch and shoot jumpers. We’ve seen something like this before with Karl Anthony-Towns where he only attempted eight threes in college and now he’s averaging nearly six threes attempted per game in the NBA.
Not to say he’ll be the same level of shooter as Towns, but I certainly believe he’ll be a respectable shooter at some point in his career. With his elite defensive projection and incredible finishing ability at the rim, it only makes sense for him to expand upon his shooting ability when he gets to the NBA.
Want to join the discussion? Like Draft Digest on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest NBA Draft news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.