Why Dereck Lively’s defense alone makes the Duke basketball star a first-round NBA pick
As basketball fans consider Dereck Lively’s standing in Thursday night’s NBA Draft class, it’s easy for the number 5.2 to stand out as a mark against him.
That’s Lively’s scoring average at Duke as a freshman last season.
Still, the 7-1 center will be front and center at Barclays Center in New York on Thursday night as a player invited to the green room because he’s considered a first-round pick.
That’s because of the defense and rebounding prowess he showed while helping the Blue Devils win the ACC championship last season. Lively blocked 82 shots, the most among any freshman in the country, to average 2.4 blocks per game.
That part of his game, ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas said, overrides any concerns that Lively can’t develop a more robust offensive game at the pro level.
“What he brings is what I would call a really high floor because he can really block shots,” Bilas said. “He’s super long armed. He’s athletic. His timing is really good. He’s very, very mobile and can move laterally, so he can guard pick-and-roll and recover, switch out and guard for a couple of dribbles, and then his ability to block and change shots around the rim is really impressive.
“That’s the floor, and that’s pretty darn good.”
Lively did make 65.8% of his shots from the field with the Blue Devils, although the majority of those shots were within a few feet of the basket if not lob passes for dunks. Still, Duke coach Jon Scheyer said astute NBA teams will look past that because Lively represents what helps teams win in the current NBA game.
“It’s really what, with modern bigs, what you look for,” Scheyer said. “He checks every single box. There’s a little bit of shooting but that’s an added bonus. That’s not the meat and potatoes for what he’s gonna be doing every single day. You think about the rim protection. You think about the switching on defense, you think about his decision making, passing on offense and his unselfishness.”
All of that play comes from a long, lean player with terrific athleticism.
“You just can’t make up those measurables,” Bilas said. “When you see it, you’re like, all this defense and rebounding and rim protecting, it’s legit.”
Bilas thought back to the 2008 draft when 6-11 DeAndre Jordan was coming out of Texas A&M after averaging 7.9 points per game.
Jordan went in the second round but has since become a first-ream, All-NBA selection who was named the league’s all-defensive team multiple times. He was part of Denver’s NBA championship team this season, his 15th in the league.
“Schlepps like me would say, well, he doesn’t have offense,” Bilas said this week. “Well, he didn’t have offense and he’s still in the league. He’s still playing, because of that floor we’re talking about that contributes to winning.”
Bilas believes Lively could go between picks 10 and 14 in the draft’s lottery section.
“I think he’s in such high demand right now,” Scheyer said. “I mean, we’ve been getting a ton of calls on him. I don’t know exactly where he’ll go, but I do know he’s in a great spot.”
At a pre-draft session with reporters in New York on Wednesday, Lively pointed out how impressed the Los Angeles Lakers were with his shooting during his workout. He warns not to sell that part of his game short.
“Just because I wasn’t able to show it at a point in time doesn’t mean I don’t have it,” Lively said. “Just because of a low performance for a couple of months doesn’t mean it’s always that way.”
Scheyer will sit with Lively and his family at the draft Thursday night, having been invited to do so by his former player. Lively was one of the first players to commit to Duke after Scheyer was named to replace the retiring Mike Krzyzewski as head coach.
“Derek invited me to sit with him, which is a special thing for me as a head coach to see that happen for the first full cycle,” Scheyer said. “Really excited for him and his family and his mom.”
