At the end of the season, it was clear the Dallas Mavericks needed more rim protection and rebounding from their bigs. Furthermore, they just needed to be better on the defense. They prioritized those things at the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and made some trades to do it.
Dallas agreed in principle to acquire the draft rights to center Dereck Lively II (12th overall) from Oklahoma City and the draft rights to forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper (24th overall) from Sacramento in two separate trades that still need to be finalized.
According to reports, Dallas dealt Davis Bertans and the 10th pick (Cason Wallace) to the Thunder for the 12th pick(Lively) and a $17 million trade exception, which allowed them to acquire Richaun Holmes and the 24th pick from the Kings.
Lively II (7-1, 210) was an early-entry candidate to this year’s draft after spending one season at Duke. In his lone season with the Blue Devils, he averaged 5.2 points (.658 FG%), 5.4 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game across 34 appearances.
The 19-year-old was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team and the ACC All-Defensive Team; Lively II is glad to be drafted and hopes to stay in the NBA for a long time.
“Whenever you finally hear your name on the screen, you hear it in the crowd, you hear it in the loudspeakers, it’s like a dream just getting started,” he said. “My dream is not to get to the NBA but to stay in the NBA. It’s kind of starting the ball rolling, and let’s see where it goes.”
Lively II lives up to his name. He’s a lively body that can block shots and is a lob threat. His skill set is very reminiscent of a center who won a championship with the Mavericks in Tyson Chandler.
Prosper (6-8, 215) spent two seasons at Marquette University, where he averaged 12.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 0.9 steals per game as a junior this past season. The 20-year-old spent his freshman year at Clemson University before transferring to Marquette.
“O-Max,” as he is affectionately called, is another athletic player that can defend and is a good finisher.
Regarding Holmes, he’s an athletic big that can go up and down the floor, a solid finisher around the rim, with decent range on his shot. The 29-year-old, who backed up Domantas Sabonis last season, is an upgrade for the Mavs at the center position. Before last season, he averaged double-figures in points for three straight years(2019-22).
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