Best Defensive Player #3: Dereck Lively II, Duke
After a lot of preseason hype, it’s hard to totally quantify Dereck Lively II’s season with the Blue Devils. On one hand, he had a handful of rough games towards the beginning of his career and looked out of place outside of lobs and putbacks in the paint.
On the other hand, Lively II grew into an absolute terror as a defender, using his great length and timing to contest shots at the rim and wall off the paint. He had a number of standout games as a shot-blocker, which reignited his NBA ceiling and has propelled him into first-round contention:
On the next possession, Dereck Lively II switches out onto Bensley Joseph to contest/block his jumper https://t.co/3m0gsUKG7j pic.twitter.com/ZJeKOdb2ju
— Jackson Lloyd (@JacksonLloydNBA) June 8, 2023
Any team that drafts Lively II will need to be patient with his development, as he’s incredibly skinny and needs to put on weight to have his peak impact as an NBA player. If given the right team environment to support his prodigious shot-blocking, however, Lively II could drastically outplay his draft stock and become a star defender.