SACRAMENTO – In some respects, Dereck Lively II is like all of us who have a job to do.
Sometimes, that work stuff gets in the way of the fun things we’d really like to be doing.
If Lively could be at American Airlines Center on Friday for Duke’s meeting with Houston in the NCAA Sweet 16, he would.
The Mavericks’ center would love to be in Dallas to support his Blue Devils. After all, he was playing for Duke in the NCAA tournament last March.
“Sadly, I’m just mad that we’re not there,” Lively said as the Mavericks hit the road for a five-game trip that spans 11 days. “I was going to be able to support my old teammates. I’m sad I’m not there, but they know I’m cheering them on in spirit.”
Not that he’s complaining, mind you. Lively has the dream job any 20-year-old would want. And he’ll be helping the Mavericks on Friday night in the rematch against Sacramento instead of cheering Duke on at the AAC.
Lively and Kyrie Irving, also a Duke product, aren’t the only ones with an alma mater still alive in the tournament. O-Max Prosper (Marquette) and both Josh Green and Brandon Williams (Arizona) still have an allegiance for a team with a chance to win it all.
Prosper may be able to watch Marquette, also in the South Regional at Dallas, since he is on assignment with the Texas Legends in the G League.
But
for Lively, he’ll have to be rooting from afar.
“I feel like they got a great chance,” he said of the Devils. “They’re in a very good pool, though. There’s going to be a lot of good games to watch with them. It’s going to come down to a lot of end-game situations, possession-by-possession games. We just got to be smart and finish it out.”
Yes, he was talking about Duke. But he could have just as easily been talking about the Mavericks, who are on a terrific roll. Just like Lively’s first NBA season.
There’s no other way to describe the 7-1 center’s rookie year other than unexpectedly productive.
“D-Live, from training camp to today, has been big,” coach Jason Kidd said. “I think we would all say we didn’t see that coming. To be able to be a starter, and, again, he hasn’t done anything wrong to come out of the starting lineup.
“D-Live’s rookie season has been really, really good. And it’s only going to get better because when you’re playing for something at this time of the year, there are some rookies who are not playing for anything. So this is seasoning that he will be ahead of a lot of the rookies in this league.”
Kidd explained the starting lineup change to Daniel Gafford this way:
“We wanted to change the cards up a little bit and loo
k at Gaff starting,” he said. “And that’s been a positive. But it just gives us depth at the center position that we haven’t had in years, or maybe a decade. To be able to relay-race of the baton being passed from Gaff to D-Live to Maxi (Kleber), that shows a lot of depth.”
Lively admitted that it’s different playing in a reserve role. It hasn’t really impacted his production, however. In roughly 20 minutes per game (down from 24 as a starter), Lively actually has averaged slightly more points at 9.4 in the 10 games since Gafford went into the starting lineup.
“It’s definitely an adjustment,” Lively said. “Everybody looks at me with the team’s running ability. Whenever I hit the floor, no matter if it’s starting or off the bench, as soon as my name’s called I got to bring energy and make the team run again.”
But he likes what he’s able to do forming a tag-team with Gafford.
“It’s a one-two punch,” he said. “I remember for a while there was just me out there and whenever I came out for a breath, there was a dropoff. Now to have a one-two punch with me and Gaff, I know everybody on the team is excited because we have two people who can catch any pass you throw them.”
And, with only 10 games left in the regular season, Lively has proven that he has plowed through any rookie wall. In fact, while he still has loads to learn, he said some things feel like he’s a veteran now.
“A lot of things are second nature,” he said. “I know what I’m supposed to do. But I haven’t even been here a year. I haven’t been through an off-season. I haven’t been to the playoffs, yet. There’s a lot of things I haven’t done yet. So I can’t say I’m a vet yet.”
All things in due time. Coming into a new job always brings with it a learning curve, like learning that sometimes, work is going to cut into recreational time.
X: @ESefko
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