Can Dereck Lively II Impact The Dallas Mavericks In Year One?

Can the rookie big man step in and immediately help Dallas on their title quest?

Last regular season, the Dallas Mavericks were undoubtedly one of the league’s biggest stories.

After an unfavorable first few months of the season, they traded for Kyrie Irving in early February, granting superstar Luka Doncic with a former champion as his new running mate. While this move was made to fortify Dallas’ spot in the postseason, its effect was the opposite.

With Irving in the lineup, the Mavericks won just eight games while dropping 12. They not only missed the playoffs, but the play-in tournament as well after a highly controversial decision to rest many of their players in the final two games of the season. This decision resulted in a $750,000 fine, but landed them the No. 12 pick in the NBA Draft.

With pressure to build a contending squad around Doncic, this off-season became a crucial one. While the Mavericks’ backcourt can drive great offense,  the team’s defense was simply bad.

To address their drastic defensive issues, Dallas selected Dereck Lively II out of Duke. The 7-foot-1 big man was on the ACC All-Defense squad as a freshman in large part due to his incredible rim-protecting chops. He used his 7-foot-7 wingspan to average 2.4 rejections per game, including five games with at least five blocks and an eight-block performance against the arch-nemesis North Carolina Tarheels.

Lively II will likely quickly become Dallas’ best defensive big man. In a locker room lacking size, nobody can match the interior defensive dominance of the former Blue Devil. However, he will need to keep progressing on offense to earn an even bigger role on the squad.

In an offense with Doncic and Irving, any big man will be heavily involved in pick-and-roll actions. While Lively II is a good finisher when close to the rim, he currently lacks some touch for some tougher layups and floaters. He’s also flashed some shooting prowess in prior performances, but simply was not converting them at a high rate while at Duke, canning just two of his 13 attempts from beyond the arc last season. Depending on how far Lively II progresses as a play-finisher, he could be a real impact piece as the Mavericks look to make a postseason push. 

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