Player Dereck Lively

[rome8180]

I absolutely think there’s a lot of untapped potential with his jumper and offense in general. Maybe it’s just me, but he does seem to lack touch close to the basket if it’s not a dunk, but I’m not sure how much that will matter at the next level if he can become a respectable corner jump shooter, which I think he will be in time.

I think it's fine.

One underrated aspect of his game is how hard he rolls. I've mentioned that before, but between that, his offensive rebounding, and being a constant lob threat, he's able to manufacturer a good amount of dunks. Sam Vecenie mentioned that he doesn't finish well on layups, but to me it's pointless to distinguish between layups and dunks. He's finishing just fine on dunks, and they're the vast majority of his shot diet.

The fact that he's able to function well in an offense with two other "bigs" and limited spacing tells me that he should thrive in the much more open lane of the NBA.

 

[rome8180]

I think bulking up a bit could help his non-dunk finishing as well. Although as I've said before, I agree its not a huge concern given the role he'll likely play in the league. Developing a jump shot would be nice but there's a Nic Claxton/Rob Williams archetype in the league today that he can slide into without having to massively improve at anything.

Tall Robert Williams is a good comp. Like Timelord, Lively can really pass. That mitigates the spacing concerns somewhat.

Tall Robert Williams sounds like a lottery pick to me. Regular Robert Williams would be a lottery pick in a redraft.

 

[bdotling]

I think also his rebounding has slowly gotten better as the year has progressed. He doesn’t lose the ball as much and he also splits a lot of those rebounds with Flip so his percentage is probably a bit artificially low

 

[krsmith16]

Gonna miss him. If we could’ve surrounded him with shooters, he would’ve been perfect.

 

[CK86]

Lively is gonna feast at the next level where he'll have real spacing on a consistent basis.

 

[best4heisman]

So long, sweet prince. We would've gone 40-0 if only you had a few post moves.

 

[Inveigle]

One of my favorites from this season. I'm going to miss him.

 

[Pantone287]

What a couple of assholes. Why are you trolling your own fanbase that you're about to abandon?

 

[bluedevilruss]

The trolling really sucks.

 

[aiw]

Officially gone

 

[dukeboy911]

expected

 

[Devilsforlife]

His defensive prowess as the season went on was a revelation. Fearsome rim protector. If only he’d had a little more offense, he could’ve been a dominant two way college player. I will remember his Duke career fondly, especially the two UNC games.

 

[aiw]

He was great and seemed like an awesome teammate even when he and the team were struggling and he wasn't playing much. Will always root for him.

 

[CK86]

Best of luck to him at the next level. Selfishly hope the Warriors find a way to draft him. Seems like the ideal modern center.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[bluedevilruss]

Pulling hard for Lively. I hope he gets drafted by a great organization.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

If he had shot something like 15/40 from 3 on the season, all completely wide open in the corner, in rhythm, no dribbles, he’d be a top 10 pick and realistically #4 or #5. He probably could’ve done it, just didn’t get the opportunity. Duke also feasibly gets a 2 or 3 seed and wins the national title.

 

[childress22]

I could see him being a top-10 pick this year regardless. If you're a young team hoping to build a late-2020s contender on a similar timeline to the Spurs, who are you going to get that's got a better shot at guarding Wemby than Lively?

 

[bdotling]

 

[childress22]

Fuck, y'all. Dereck's mom died. I feel so sad for him.