Dereck Lively Wasn't Supposed to Be THIS GOOD Already...

Derek Lively has been proving throughout the entire playoffs why the Mavericks drafted him with the 12th overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft in the 642 possessions where he's been on the floor during the playoffs the Mavericks have a whopping plus 15.3 net rating but in the 804 possessions where he's been off the floor that net rating drops down to -4.9 that's a level of impact that's absolutely unheard of from a rookie and especially from a rook ke Center a position where Youth and inexperience usually means that your utility in a playoff setting is limited at best and non-existent at worst but that's not the case for Derek Lively the 20-year-old Center out of Duke plays with a level of maturity and Leadership that you'd expect from a guy that's been in the league for a decade a lot of rookies will run into issues with poor decision-making in immaturity that manifests into damaging moments for their team's ability to win big games but with Derrik Lively not only is he avoiding those costly mistakes but he's a big reason as to why the Mavericks have been able to win so many big games throughout the playoffs his presence in the paint is enough to prevent drivers from even looking at The Rim when he's down there waiting for him because they know that that 7'5 Wings span and 9 and 1/2t standing reach means that they've got their work cut out for them when it comes to trying to finish over top of him the Oklahoma City Thunder were one of the best driving teams in the NBA but if you watched that series you wouldn't know it first Shay's Drive is going to get shut down because he knows he's not going to be able to get it into the basket over top of lively so he slings it out to Joe in the corner then once Joe drives he's once again going to run into Lively waiting for him down low forcing him to pass it out to Chad and then Chad is left taking a difficult fallway jumper against him as the shot clock dwindles down leading to a miss it doesn't matter how far he helps off of the corners because when you're working the ball around the horn Lively is still fully capable of covering whatever ground he needs to cover in order to make that close out and disrupt the shot and even block it if you're not careful lumping Derek Lively in with your traditional slow-footed defensive big man doesn't work because the fact of the matter is he's just simply too mobile to slot into that category he may not be a lock down perimeter Defender when he switched onto smaller guys but that doesn't mean you're going to have an easy time finishing against him we saw in the series against the Thunder they couldn't really get away with hunting for switches against him because even if they could get him backpedaling that wingspan simply made it to where it was still too easy for him to contest the shot when they try and get those step backs against him but for as good as Derrik Lively's defense is what often gets lost in the discussion about him is how good of an offensive asset he is particularly in the context of Dallas's scheme built around the unprecedented scoring gravity of Luca donic and Kyrie Irving the amount of work that drik Lively puts in on the defensive end is only enhanced by the fact that he's arguably the third most important part of their ridiculously powerful offense his ability to operate as the cleanup guy on the glass and generate putbacks at a high level is hugely important especially in the playoffs but this rebounding ability does more than just lead to putbacks the fact that Derrik Lively is such a competent and capable passer after nabbing these offensive rebounds means that he's able to Rifle passes back out to Shooters waiting on the perimeter to turn What Might Have Been a putback opportunity for two points into a catch and shoot opportunity for three points and while we're on the subject of his passing ability this leads us into the stuff that he's doing on the short roll he has no problem getting to the rim when he gets feeds from luk rolling to the basket even when that pass comes while he's still well above the free throw line Sid stepping cat to get to the rim and finish with zero resistance because you have to throw extra defensive attention at him as a rle man this allows him to leverage that passing ability drawing defensive attention from both ant and Cat and with Kyle Anderson rotating to the corner to shut off that pass Lively just sends it back out above the break to Josh Green for a wide openen catch and shoot three additionally he does does a lot of passing as a delay action Hub with the Mavericks setting up as though they're going to run this pin down for Luca to come and get the handoff but instead he's going to cut towards the basket and Lively is going to Rifle the pass to him on the back cut for the finish at The Rim this approach is so effective because opposing teams normally have their Center matched up against Lively making it to where when he's the guy initiating a handoff the opposing Center is already pulled away from the pain that allows them to generate clean looks at The Rim by the simple nature of removing that potential help that otherwise would have been down there waiting for whoever was trying to get to the rim in the first place the traditional role man aspect of Lively's game is so important because of how it bolsters dallas' scoring gravity especially when he's operating in the pick and roll with Luca not only does Luca draw two Defenders more often than not when he's driving off of a screen but defenses also don't want to surrender open lobs to Lively so you'll see them often opt to send tags away from the corners this can be effective if it wasn't for the fact that Lively is also always aware of the extra pass being able to hit those Corners when opposing Defenders decide to tag him on the roll and you pretty much have to send those tags to him on the roll because if you don't he's going to have zero problems scoring the basketball among players in the playoffs that have recorded at least two possessions as the rle man Derek Lively is number number one in field goal percentage at 70.8% and fourth in points per possession at 1.26 he is an absolute monster in the pick and roll but even outside of just these traditional Rim running big man aspects Derek Lively is like if you took that player archetype but gave him the ability to basically do all of the other little things right at any given moment in time and it turns out that's a pretty incredible player to have on your team ESP especially a team with Luca donic on it and what's even crazier is the fact that drik Lively hasn't even been starting in the playoffs and he's only playing around 21 1/2 minutes a night this is why his numbers at a glance this postseason might come across as a little bit underwhelming he's averaging 8 and 1 12 points 7.1 rebounds and roughly one block a night it's nothing to write home about but when you look at his per 75 possession stats he's logging 15 1 12 points 12.9 rebounds and two blocks per 75 possessions and although he probably wouldn't be playing 75 possessions a game the point here is that his box score numbers are very deceptive considering he's only playing around 20 minutes a night and he's splitting minutes with Daniel Gafford who's basically just another version of this Lively archetype now don't get me wrong I understand why Lively isn't playing more minutes Daniel Gafford gives Lively the opportunity to get a little bit more rest it keeps both of them out of foul trouble and they get to play significantly more freely knowing that it's okay if one gets into foul trouble because they can just back each other up but I want to make something very clear that I've seen discussed a little bit just because Daniel Gafford has been starting over Derek Lively Lively is already significantly better than Gafford in pretty much every single aspect and that's not a dis against Daniel gaffard I think Daniel Gafford has been great for Dallas it's a testament to how great of player Derek Lively already is at only 20 years old while a lot of people before he was drafted just saw a limited usage Rim running big man with few Dimensions to his game it turns out that his utility is a lot more Universal than he initially got credit for he's especially successful in this context because Luca donic is already one of the greatest pick and roll operators of all time but don't get it twisted Derek Lively would work on literally any team in the NBA Derek Lively could have come into the league and struggled right off the bat and I'd argue most people would have understood and been patient with his development and that's because rookie centers aren't supposed to be this good right off the bat and they're certainly not supposed to be contributing to the level that Lively has been in the playoffs he has the third highest onoff swing among bigs in the playoffs so far which is just absolutely ridiculous Derrik Lively is just a rookie and if Dallas goes on to win a championship this season there's no doubt that Lively is going to be one of the biggest reasons why really hope you guys enjoyed this video I'd appreciate it a ton if you considered leaving a like and subscribing it helps me out so much thank you all so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: AlexHoops

Views: 197,312

Keywords: alexhoops, dereck lively, dallas mavericks, mavericks, dereck lively dallas mavericks, dereck lively ii, dereck lively head injury, dereck lively interview, dereck lively highlights, dereck lively injury, dereck lively ii highlights, dereck lively duke, dereck lively mom, nba, dereck lively nba draft, dereck lively ii vs okc, luka doncic, dereck lively mavericks, kyrie irving, dallas mavericks vs minnesota timberwolves, nba playoffs

Id: PlcepZ0eqTE

Length: 9min 19sec (559 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2024