Dallas Mavs Film Study: Dereck Lively II’s Major Potential as Finisher & Offensive Rebounder

Dallas Mavs rookie Dereck Lively continues to show intriguing potential as an interior finisher and offensive rebounder. Watch more on his impact in our video breakdown.

DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks are already seeing significant signs of impact from Dereck Lively II, just two games into his NBA career. He's averaging 12.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks in 24.0 minutes per game thus far.

Lively's potential progression in key areas of being a rim protector, rebounder, and finisher will have a significant influence on the Mavs' immediate potential. Nobody else on the roster presents the size or length he does at 7-foot-1 with a 7-foot-7 wingspan. If the nuances click quickly for the 19-year-old, he can continue to take on a bigger role, and that only helps Dallas' ceiling. 

Lively has produced impressive results as a finisher, shooting a league-best 91.7 percent from the floor in his first two performances. He sees it as the product of diligent work on his finishing touch, whether on hooks, dumpoffs, or finishing off lobs, all in part of his role as the Mavs' dirty work specialist. 

"The work works just being able to know that I'm always going to be around the rim, always going to try to finish it. It doesn't matter if that's hooks, dumpoffs, dunks, or lobs. They're doing whatever it takes to do the dirty work to clean up everything."

Dallas Mavericks rookie Dereck Lively II :: Photo by Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images

There have been numerous impressive offensive rebounding sequences from Lively, showing he brings a type of threat the team lacked last season as a unit that ranked 30th in total rebounding percentage. 

A breakdown of Lively's impact as a play finisher and offensive rebounder through two games is included in the embedded YouTube video below. Subscribe to my channel for more content about Lively and the Mavs throughout the season.

There is a lot for Lively to continue to show as he gets comfortable with the NBA. However, he's already shown impressive signs of being an impactful threat as a vertical lob option, a rim protector, and a rebounder as he continues to fine-tune his game, working on areas like finishing touch, post-scoring, and more. He told DallasBasketball.com before the season began how he intends to continue to grow his game offensively. 

"Being a more offensive driven, being able to work out of the flash, being able to play out of give and goes, being able to keep it whenever I'm in DHOs," Lively told DallasBasketball.com. "We're just going to try to work on little things for every single day to try to refine my ball handling skills and be able to make sure I'm strong whenever I drive to the basket."

The Mavs return to action on Monday when they take on the Memphis Grizzlies at FedEx Forum, marking the third game of Lively's NBA career.