Duke basketball alum Dereck Lively named to NBA All-Rookie Second Team

Lively, who earned praise for his two playoff double-doubles as Dallas closed out Oklahoma City, made an NBA All-Rookie team on Monday.

Former Duke basketball star Dereck Lively II made his way onto the 2023-24 Kia NBA All-Rookie Second Team on Monday.

Lively, who now plays for the Dallas Mavericks, appeared in 55 games for his new professional team, starting 42 times. The former Blue Devil averaged 8.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, shooting 74.7% from the floor.

He compiled eight double-doubles and four 20-point games over the course of the regular season, putting up a career-high 22 points against the Chicago Bulls in March and compiling a personal-best 16 rebounds in two separate games.

Lively broke into the national forefront during the playoffs this week when he put together back-to-back double-doubles in the final two games of Dallas’s second-round series win over No. 1 seed Oklahoma City. Just five weeks after losing his mother to cancer, the 7-foot-1 center scored 12 points and grabbed 15 rebounds during a one-point win in Game 6, earning him praise from his teammates and across social media.

Lively and the Mavericks will face the Minnesota Timberwolves (and fellow former Duke star Wendell Moore Jr.) in the Western Conference Finals.