NBA Mock Draft: Mavs Trade Back to Select Duke's Dereck Lively II?
With the NBA Draft just five weeks away, nobody knows what the Dallas Mavericks will do with the No. 10 overall pick … including themselves.
In what is one of the deeper draft classes we’ve seen in some time, the Mavs have an opportunity to add a top prospect with the No. 10 pick if they choose to do so. On the other hand, given that large talent pool, Dallas could take advantage and add more win-now through a potential trade.
If the Mavs do keep their pick, The Athletic has them selecting Duke center Dereck Lively II at No. 10. The mock also provided a scouting report for the 7-1 big man.
"Lively struggled to start the season, but by the end of it, there was not a more impactful defender in college basketball. He’s an elite rim protector who averaged 2.5 blocks per game this past season in 20 minutes," Sam Vecenie writes.
"He defends ball screens well and can do so in a variety of different schemes. He can hard hedge and recover, he can drop, and he can play at the level. He’s mobile and runs the court very well. Offensively, he’s extremely limited right now, but Lively has immense tools with a 7-7 wingspan that portends potential to not just be a good defender but a great one."
Although Lively fits the mold for the type of center the Mavs need next to Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, selecting him with the 10th pick in the draft would be seen as a big reach given that most other mock drafts has be him as a late first-round pick.
With that being said, we discussed the idea of the Mavs trading back in the draft to select Lively on the latest episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast. We also talk about how we see Lively’s skillset filling a need the Mavs have had since the Tyson Chandler days. You can listen to that entire segment here:
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