Dereck Lively II leads NBA in field goal percentage

Two games into the season and Mavericks rookie center Dereck Lively II finds himself in a place where he hopes to be all season.

He’s leading the NBA in field goal percentage.

By converting 11 of his 12 attempts from the floor, Lively is the top field goal marksman in the league at a red-hot 91.7 percent. Granted, it’s early in the season and this is only a small sample size, but it’s still a worthy achievement that’s given the Duke product something to smile about.

“The work’s working,” Lively said. “(It’s good) being able to know that I‘m always going to be around the rim, always going to try and finish it no matter if it’s hooks, dump balls, dunks, lobs. “(I’m) just doing whatever it takes to do the dirty work to clean up everything.”

Lively was 7-of-8 from the field and finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds in 31 minutes off the bench during Wednesday’s 126-119 season-opening win over the San Antonio Spurs. And he was 4-for-4 in 17 minutes as a starter – and finished with nine points and two rebounds– during Friday’s 125-120 triumph over the Brooklyn Nets.

Lively’s performance against the Spurs went viral, with fans on social media giving him two thumbs up. But Lively never knew it – at least he said he didn’t — until a reporter asked him about it after Saturday’s practice in preparation for Monday’s game in Memphis.

“I really try to stay off social media comments, because when they’re going to see me do something well they’re going to praise me, and as soon I do something wrong they’re going to hate me,” Lively said. “I’m going to deal with whatever I need to deal with and that’s my job is to finish plays, and that’s what I can do for sure.”

Lively only played one season at Duke before declaring for the NBA Draft, and eventually became the 12^th player chosen in the draft. And he subsequently knew adjustments to his game would have to come fast and furious.

“It’s the biggest stage,” Lively said. “It’s a filled arena almost every time you play basketball, so you’ve got to make as little mistakes as possible, you’ve got to be on your edges at all times, (and) you’ve got to be ready for whenever your number is called.

“You’ve got to be ready for everything that they throw at you, because they’re out there and they know what you like to do and they know what you don’t like to do. So, they’re going to try to game plan for you, so you have to anticipate that and be ready for that.”

One person who has gotten Lively anticipating whatever is about to come next is his mentor – former Mavs center Tyson Chandler.

“He’s praising me, but he’s also making sure that he’s on every mistake that I possibly can make,” Lively said. “He’s always trying to teach me what’s the right positioning, what’s the right footwork, what’s the right timing and just being able to just try to do the little key things, because if I see someone going to double one of our main guards I have to be able to flash.

“But at the same time if I see one of my guards posting up and he’s about to shoot it, I’ve got to get into the position to be able to box out earlier rather than seeing the shot go up and then box out.”

So, what’s the biggest advice Chandler has given Lively?

“It’s a long season,” Lively said. “You’ve got to be able to just make sure that you’re locked in the entire time. There’s going to be a lot of voices talking to you, there’s going to be a lot of people trying to reach out trying to make you do things, trying to make you appear in different places.

“But you’ve got to make sure that you’re doing your number one job, and that’s being able to focus on what you’re doing on the court and getting better. And that’s what we’ve been trying to do and that’s what we’re focusing on.”

Lively also has been focusing on perfecting the lob-dunk passes on the pick-and-roll from guards Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and on just playing with two of the more dynamic players the NBA has to offer.

“It really just comes down to repetition,” Lively said. “We’ve been able to practice for a couple of weeks now, being able to know their timing, what they like to do, what they don’t like to do, and just being able to just get them out of a pinch.

“If they’re in a double I’ve got to flash, and if someone goes under on a screen, I’m going to re-screen so they can get back downhill to get to the rim or get to the shot that they need to.”

X: @DwainPrice