Dereck Lively II was known for bringing energy to the court at Duke. Whenever he entered the game, you could expect to hear screaming and see hair, sweat and slobber flying as he threw himself into the task of defending the rim.
Lively will now join another high-energy guy in Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, known for his emotional clashes with referees from his courtside seat.
Lively was drafted by Oklahoma City with the 12th pick of last week’s NBA Draft, but in short order, he was traded to Dallas and will join Cuban’s shark tank in Big D.
“I feel like I can definitely see myself having a great time in Dallas and being a great fit,” Lively said on draft night. “I was just on the phone with (Cuban) less than two minutes ago. He was just saying, ‘Congratulations and we’re just excited to have you and we’re excited to start,’ which is exactly the same exact feeling I’m feeling.”
“When it came to (Lively), he was the guy we wanted,” Cuban told Dallas sports radio. “He was available, we would have taken him at 10 if we couldn’t do the deal.”
Mavs president Michael Finley compared Lively to Tyson Chandler, saying that the Duke one-and-done freshman was “pretty high on our board.”
“We were excited to see him, quote-unquote, slip into a position where we could choose him,” Finley said. “So, we were excited that he was available for us.”
Lively was the only player with local connections chosen with a lottery pick, although it was a big night for plenty of other players familiar to North Carolina basketball fans.
Lively’s Duke teammate Dariq Whitehead was the next local player off the board, going with pick No. 22 to the Brooklyn Nets.
Whitehead impressed teams with his potential, but a history of injuries in his one season at Duke, as well as another pre-draft foot operation, caused him to slide to the bottom of the first round.
“I can only imagine had he been at strength, he would’ve gone a lot higher and so forth,” Nets GM Sean Marks said at the team’s draft press conference.
“I think I can definitely get back to that guy who I was,” Whitehead said. “I feel like people definitely from last year, they tend to think that I’m not athletic, and that was due to me pretty much playing on one leg. But I feel like I can definitely show the athletic part, and then really my playmaking.”
Whitehead’s most recent operation was done by the Nets’ team foot specialist, one of several links between the team and the Duke draftee. He was born and grew up in Newark, New Jersey, before leaving to attend Montverde Academy in Florida at age 13. Joining the Nets will be a homecoming for him.
“Being away from home at a young age, going to high school in Florida, this is the first time where my family is going to be able to fully watch me play with everybody, friends and family,” he said.
Oklahoma City got to help with another local player in the second round of the draft. The Thunder took Clemson’s Hunter Tyson with the 37th overall pick. They then traded the Monroe native and Piedmont High alumnus to the world champion Denver Nuggets.
Despite winning it all earlier in the month, Denver seems ready to welcome Tyson, who will have a solid chance of making the team — something not always the case for second-rounders joining title teams.
“I really like this guy. Great dude,” Jim Clibanoff, Denver’s vice president of scouting, said at the team’s draft press conference. “Came in for a pre-draft workout for us. We had breakfast. Interacted so well with everybody at the table with us. Came at the workout, hit like every shot. This is a guy who got better each year at Clemson.”
Clibanoff praised Tyson’s ability to “fit” multiple times.
“He knows how to win, knows how to fit in,” he said. “He’ll really help us stretch the floor. We think he can play the power forward and small forward spots. … He’s got a lot of different components to his game that you’ll like, and he’ll learn how to fit in.”
GG Jackson, who had the briefest N.C. connection of the draft class, was the next “local” player to go. He was committed to UNC for the upcoming season before reclassifying and heading to college a year early, getting a release from his letter of intent and playing at South Carolina. He was drafted by Memphis at No. 45.
Four other players were signed as free agents after not being drafted.
NC State’s Terquavion Smith, who was expected to go in the second round, signed with the 76ers. His Wolfpack teammate Jarkel Joiner signed with Atlanta.
UNC’s Pete Nance signed with Cleveland, giving him the chance to join the franchise that his father played seven seasons for and his brother four.
Fellow Tar Heel Leaky Black joined Charlotte on a free agent contract.
