[@esidery] The Mavericks believe Dereck Lively has the potential to become an elite defensive anchor similar to Kevin Garnett or Joakim Noah, per @espn_macmahon Dallas is expected to start Lively full-time next season with Daniel Gafford moving to a bench role.
by MindArr0w77
29 Comments
No surprise there for me. Let him become a beast!
You just know Gafford off the bench is gonna be a bat from hell and screaming on the first dunk he makes lol.
I just hope the minutes shared is 50-05 or 60-40 because Lively is a bit injury prone, don’t want him to play 30 minutes a night as a sophomore
Dude earned it. Unquestionable starter from game 1 this year. Can’t wait to see what he does in his second year. Sky is the limit.
Good, it makes way more sense to start lively
Much smarter offensive player with miles more potential
And it’s also more beneficial to gafford imo, he’s less skill based and more the kind of guy who thrives just overpowering his opponents, will have a much easier time doing that against bench centers
I got downvoted for saying he’d be DPOY one day
I love how we turned a weakness into a genuine strength with Lively and Gafford covering 48 minutes a night. Gafford should still get his 20 minutes a game minimum.
A moment of silence for the desperate folks in this sub that were crying due to the 2-game tank because “something something Luka will demand a trade”.
Gafford will also feast.
Joakim Noah! He’s been my favorite comp of his. Cool to see the team sees that too.
No brainer. He could have started last year.
I would love it if Lively became Joakim defensively with KG offensive game
Lively and Gafford really need need to be seen as 1A & 1B. They are literately the same thing just rotating shifts on the floor. The starter or bench player doesn’t matter in this situation imo, it’s a two headed monster but we’re only going to let one head on the court at a time and that’s fucking cool with me.
It literally does not matter who starts. Who’s going that night? Play that guy extra minutes.
This is the benefit of having a two headed monster at C. Some nights Gafford is in the zone and Lively isn’t feeling it, some nights one or the other will get in foul trouble.
There is absolutely no need to define one guy as having a “bench” role. Both should play a lot of minutes.
Hope the offseason is spent bulking up the lower body to handle the garbage teams will start pulling when he’s lighting them up on both ends of the floor.
I want to seem him get that 3 point shot down and passing going then we can switch to pick and pop like dirk did so well. Not to mention spacing the floor taking their bigs 27’ out the paint.
As he should. Gafford, Grimes, Naji, Exum, Hardy is a damn good 2nd unit
Not surprising- lively was the better of the 2 but we had a good thing going with Gafford starting
Tanking that game was all so worth it. We all know what game that is
Had to happen. Gaff deserved the respect this year, starting over a rookie. Lively earned that role.
Lively is a beast and really was the best C we had post all star break. I think they just liked Gafford to come in and provide some early defense and absorb some fouls, while Lively could be a spark plug off the bench. But overall Lively was the more impactful player.
I wouldn’t even mind him still coming off the bench to help load manage him. He had a few injuries during the year and don’t want to see him getting worn out playing against bigger/thicker centers all year long. As long as he is getting a few more minutes than Gafford and closing games then I am fine with them continuing to be a two headed monster that teams have to deal with for 48 minutes.
Everyone who watched him in the playoffs should already know.
It’s fine and certainly deserved, but I kind of liked having Gafford go all out for the first 3-4 minutes of a game, throw the first punch for Lively to take over, with the bonus of not having to worry about early fouls.
Joakim Noah! I keep wondering who Lively will be like. Chandler sort of, he likely won’t quite score 20-25 a game like Garnett. But Noah had a 5 year run of 11/11/3 with 2 blocks and became a great passer. Lively showed great potential with vision this year. Noah made 3 all defensive teams, if lively becomes a perrenial all defensive team contender I think we’ll all be ecstatic
lively cheered gafford on from the first day even when he started coming off the bench and didnt let it discourage him one bit or hinder his progress, he is special
If he can take that next step and add a pull up or some post moves he could easily be up there with the next group of best big men
Honestly, it really won’t matter who starts, but Lively should be starting. Gafford is really good in spurts, so him coming off the bench actually is a plus. I’m sure he wants to start, but this is his first time winning, and if he gets the appropriate minutes, he’ll be fine.
Having two plus defenders that can rebound/block and rim roll decreases the margin of error so much.
Lively for 28mins and gafford for 20 mins of the bench? Count me down for 12/10 2blk from lively next year with a 3 point attempts per game mixed in. Gafford and lively could very well combine to form a 20/16 and 3blk C with elite interior defense balancing out our porous perimeter d.
We need to go ahead and lock in the two headed monster before they become more expensive
Theo Pinson’s triple double legacy game led us to DLive. Shout out to Theo