Dereck Lively II Predicted to Be Mavs' 'Most Surprising' Player

Mavs rookie Dereck Lively II was predicted to be the team's most surprising player for the 2023-24 season.

DALLAS — After a 38-44 finish to the 2022-23 season, the Dallas Mavericks face a major need to bounce-back during their upcoming campaign. There has been plenty of effort made to reconfigure the supporting cast around Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving to achieve a better result. 

Each team enters any given season with a "best-case scenario" and a common factor tends to revolve around the production of young talent. When identifying one player that could be surprise us the most this season, Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley made Dereck Lively II his selection for the Mavs.

There was an acknowledgement by Buckley that Lively's limited box score production at Duke may warrant tempering the expectations for what he can achieve as a rookie. Keep in mind, he is still only going to be 20 on the day of his next birthday in February during the season.

"Lively will start this season as a teenager (he'll turn 20 in February) and wasn't super productive at Duke (5.4 rebounds and 5.2 points in 20.6 minutes), so it might make sense to temper expectations," Buckley wrote. 

The center position has been an area for the Mavs to address for years. After the run to the Western Conference Finals in 2022, there was a sense that upgrading from Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber would be important to take the next step. Dallas traded for Christian Wood last offseason, but his stint with the team was short-lived. Now, the greatest long-term ceiling lies with Lively. 

Entering the 2023-24 season, the Mavs have two undersized veteran options in Powell and Richaun Holmes to utilize at the five, along with going small with Kleber. Lively, who stands at 7-foot-1 with a 7-foot-7 wingspan, has the necessarily physical tools to provide an interior presence as a defensive anchor. Will the short-term need for this impact make dealing with possible growing pains a possibility?

"Then again, the Mavs really only need rim protection and spoon-fed finishing out of him, so even in his raw state, he might already be able to step into this niche (but critically important) role," Buckley wrote.

If Lively indeed provides the Mavs with enough positive production to warrant it being considered a surprise, there is a lot to like about what the team could ultimately achieve.