Dallas is moving toward a contract extension for Dereck Lively II, and that says plenty about where the Mavericks see their future on defense.
For a lot of fans, Lively’s rookie playoff run is remembered for the lobs. Fair enough - he was the clean-up man at the rim, the 20-year-old who finished everything Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving sent his way and did it while shooting an absurd percentage from the field in the NBA Finals. But that only tells part of the story.
What really made him matter was what he did without the ball in his hands. Lively spent that postseason showing up as a problem at the rim, meeting drivers with force and blocking shots with real intent.
He also flashed chase-down speed in transition, the kind of recovery plays that come from length, motor and timing. And then there were the possessions that made people take a second look: switching out, staying attached and contesting 3-pointers against Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in the Finals.
That is not normal work for a rookie center.
The numbers back up the eye test. Lively finished the 2024 playoffs with a 109.0 defensive rating, and Dallas as a team climbed from 21st in defensive rating in 2022-23 to sixth in 2023-24 during the regular season.
The center spot was the biggest personnel upgrade behind that jump. In 21 postseason games, Lively averaged 7.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists in about 22 minutes a night.
He did most of that coming off the bench behind Daniel Gafford.
That’s part of why the extension talk matters. Marc Stein reported that Dallas appears to be taking the view that it’s time to clear the path and let Lively play more. And when you look at the playoff data, it’s easy to see why.
Lively posted the highest net rating on the entire Mavericks roster during that run. In 261 minutes alongside Doncic and Irving, Dallas outscored opponents by 19.7 points per 100 possessions.
Among the 178 three-man combinations leaguewide that logged at least 175 minutes in that postseason, that was the best mark. That wasn’t a nice little sample.
That was the best trio in basketball for two months.
His best stretch came in the Western Conference finals against Minnesota. Over five games, he averaged 9.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks while going 16-of-16 from the field. The perfect shooting line grabbed the headlines, but the defensive work against a Timberwolves frontcourt built to punish smaller lineups was just as important.
The problem, of course, is health. Lively is more than seven months removed from season-ending surgery on his right foot, the third procedure on that foot in about a year.
As of late June, he still could not run or jump. He played seven games last season and has appeared in only 98 of 185 possible regular-season games in his career.
When asked recently about a timeline, he did not offer one.
Even so, the upside is still sitting there. Lively was 20 during that Finals run and is 22 now.
Dallas is trying to build a defense around Cooper Flagg’s length and versatility, and a healthy Lively fits right into that plan. The 2024 playoffs showed exactly what that frontcourt can look like when he’s available.
Now the Mavericks are trying to make sure he stays part of it.
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