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It’s safe to say that the Dallas Mavericks feel like they got a steal when they took Blue Devil Dereck Lively. It’s still early and players will obviously develop over time, but look at some of the players who were taken ahead of him, notably Jett Howard (Howard went to Orlando at #12, just before Dallas took Lively at #13). He’s been outstanding during this year’s playoffs and should be a big plus for the Mavs in the NBA Finals.
One of Lively’s underrated strengths, which we saw at Duke, was his willingness to subordinate himself for the sake of the team.
A lot of talented players have never learned how to do this, which is kind of crazy, and anyone who has ever played team basketball at any level has come across one guy who just demands the ball constantly.
So it was no surprise to us to see these comments from Lively about Dallas’s star guards, Kyrie Irving (like Lively a former Blue Devil) and Luka Doncic: “Their voice is law. If you’re on bullsh*t they’re going to call you out. At the same time, they have the same respect for you if they’re on bullsh*t and you’re supposed to call them out.”
It’s possible that, as his game develops, Lively could become an egomaniac, but given what we’ve seen of his nature, that seems really unlikely. He’s sort of the ideal teammate, because what he wants most of all is to be part of it, and to win. Duke fans will watch him carefully obviously but the rest of the basketball world should too. Lively’s future is exceedingly bright.
