There’s been a debate building on social media platforms about who the most important player will be in the NBA Finals if you take away the four superstars.
That would be Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
If you watched closely, Dončić may have already cast his vote.
During the celebration after winning the Western Conference finals, the Mavericks’ point guard took his MVP trophy, said it was for his teammates, and then Jason Kidd noticed something else about Luka that was impressive.
“I think one of the things that was caught on camera was him giving the Western Conference MVP (trophy) to D-Live,” Kidd said. “And I think that message – he understands how important D-Live is to this team.
“He was probably kidding, but also serious because of the importance of what D-Live brings to us.”
D-Live would be Dereck Lively II. The rookie. The guy who comes off the bench.
Who would have thought that the 7-1 center who showed up eight months ago as a wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights 19-year-old would be in this position as maybe the third-most important Maverick.
Not even Lively.
“I don’t think any of us expected this,” Lively said Sunday after a Mavericks workout in preparation for the NBA Finals that start Thursday in Boston. “I didn’t expect this. My mama didn’t expect this. Tyson (Chandler) didn’t expect this. Jason Kidd didn’t expect this. They expected me to come to the Dallas Mavericks and learn. And that’s what I did.
“I don’t think they expected me to learn this much this quick.”
Part of it was Kidd’s stance on failure. It is, without question, the best teacher. So Lively was tossed into the NBA pool and allowed to swallow a few gallons of water before he learned to stay afloat.
Eventually, he became more comfortable, learned some hard lessons, lost his mother to cancer along the way and has had to grow up fast in more ways than one.
He had an interesting take on what the journey has been like.
“There have been a lot of times when I was unsure of play calls or different things,” Lively said. “But I’ve been able to lean on my team. They understand I haven’t been in this situation before.
“But I’m going to fake it until I make it.”
He hasn’t had to fake much of anything, honestly.
Lively has talent. He has supreme athleticism for someone his size. He has learned a lot from Chandler, the former Maverick who became a mentor for Lively, who is a close physical replica of a young Chandler, who later became the starting center on the Mavericks’ title team in 2011.
“When we got Lively, we felt it was going to fill one of the holes that Luka was looking for, a vertical guy,” Kidd said. “You could see the future of him being the anchor of the defense. The future just happened to come a lot faster. He wanted that responsibility. Sometimes, young players will shy away from that. But he ran to it.”
Quite a difference for a kid whose first NBA game was in Abu Dhabi against Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid, one of the most imposing front lines in the league.
As the season progressed, Lively learned how to contribute via lob passes from Luka. And with offensive rebounding. He has been a strong asset in the playoffs, even with no real plays called for him.
Everything he gets is adlibbed off the pick and roll or on offensive rebounds. The fact that he made 16 shots in the conference finals without a miss proved his efficiency.
And that his teammates trust him. It’s amazing what hard work can do for someone.
“My mama always said this: My way is the hardest way,” Lively said. “We’re not going to take the easy way out. We’re not going to cry if things aren’t going our way. We just got to be able to huddle together as a family and lean on each other.
“I have an angel on my shoulder. I can definitely attribute that 16-of-16 to my mother.”
By the way, Lively said his sprained neck is feeling much better after he had to sit out Game 4 against the Wolves. He quickly moved his head left, right and up to illustrate.
Lively averaged 9.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in the 4-1 series win against Minnesota. He has yet to taste the bitterness of losing a series. His teammates have forewarned him that it’s not always like this.
So he’s enjoying it while he can.
“I’m here to win games,” he said. “I’m not here to care about how many points I put on the board, how many rebounds, how many times I start.”
To that end, Lively understands that the Mavericks are, for the fourth consecutive series, underdogs in the NBA Finals.
And that’s OK.
“I feel like there’s always someone pointing down on us,” he said. “And we’re like: OK, cool. You’re going to say that about us, watch what we do next. And we’ve taken that to heart if people are going to label us as underdogs. We just kind of shrug our shoulders. Whenever people tell us we can’t, we want to do it a little more.”
That’s what made the trip home from Minnesota Friday all the more fun. Proving people wrong has become a favorite hobby of this team.
“It was an interesting plane ride back,” Lively said. “It was very high spirits in the plane, but we were driving into a thunderstorm. We were able to lean on each other and have fun, even in the moments when we were kind of like: uh, are we going to make it back?
“Everybody from the flight (attendant) to the pilot, everybody was happy. We even had fans that were waiting out in the rain at 2 or 3 in the morning. That just makes you want to work even harder.”
Not that Lively needs any more incentive.
X: @ESefko
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