Duke basketball freshman Dereck Lively goes to Dallas Mavericks in NBA Draft
Dereck Lively, a shot-blocking freshman center on Duke’s ACC championship team last season, landed in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night.
The Mavericks selected the 7-1, 230-pound Lively with the No. 12 overall pick in the NBA Draft’s first round after a trade with Oklahoma at No. 10, a historic pick for Duke basketball.
Lively became the 54th Duke player to be a first-round pick since the NBA Draft began in 1950, moving Duke past rival North Carolina on the all-time list. Only Kentucky (58) has more than Duke with UNC’s 53 now third among colleges.
When Dariq Whitehead went No. 22 to Brooklyn later Thursday night, the Blue Devils had 55 first-round picks.
Lively’s selection gives Duke 30 players selected in the NBA Draft lottery, the most of any college team.
During his lone college season at Duke, Lively averaged 5.2 points and 5.4 rebounds while blocking 2.4 shots per game. His 82 blocked shots led all freshman nationally.
He fills a glaring need for the Mavericks, who are not planning to bring back 6-9 free agent Christian Wood. Dallas also traded 6-10 Davis Bertans to Oklahoma City Thursday night when the Mavericks moved down from their original No. 10 slot in the first round.
“Whenever you finally hear your name on the screen, you hear it in the crowd, you hear it in the loud speakers, it’s like a dream just getting started,” Lively said. “My dream is not to get to the NBA but to stay in the NBA. It’s kind of starting the ball rolling, and let’s see where it goes.”
A preseason leg injury last October slowed Lively’s progress and caused him to miss Duke’s season-opening game last season. While becoming a dominant shot-blocker and strong rebounder, Lively never developed into a big-time scorer. Made 65.8% of his shots but only scored in double figures five times.
ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas said that, while he believes Lively’s defense is good enough for him to be an impact NBA player as a rookie, he sees him improving his play on offense in the coming years.
“I think Lively has the ability to be a much better offensive player,” Bilas said. “But even if he’s not, the floor is so high. Like I think he’s got a much higher ceiling now, and he had a high one coming out of high school. He would have been a top-5 pick coming out of high school, if they allowed that, but the fact that he had an up-and-down season because of injury sort of maybe set him back a little bit.”
Lively’s selection gives Duke at least one player selected in 24 of the last 26 drafts, with 39 first-round picks during that time.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer, who accepted Lively’s invitation to sit with him at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center at the draft Thursday night, sees his former player doing great things in the NBA.
“He’s so young from a development standpoint,” Scheyer said. “He missed a time in high school. He’s gonna continue to add his skill set.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2023 at 9:20 PM.