This Has Mavs Fans BUZZING…

This Has Mavs Fans BUZZING…

This has Mavericks fans buzzing and it’s about that time that we have this conversation as we had a similar conversation around this time last year surrounding who’s going to be our starting center, Daniel Gaffford or Derrick Lively. In two seasons ago when we made that infamous push to the finals, a lot of Mavericks fans were excited for Derrick Lively and his growth and development. As a rookie, he played an integral part in this Dallas Mavericks team push all season long, even into the playoffs that led us to the finals. And a lot of people were excited to see where he could go from there. While other fans knew that Daniel Gaffford is already a solidified center in the league and what he was able to do for the team right away blew fans away. But after last year with all the injuries, guys missing time, we really didn’t get to see who should be our long-term starting center as they both shared that role. But in this upcoming season now that we have Cooper Flag, but we don’t have Kyrie for the majority of the season, certain players roles are going to change. And next season, we will have to see who will be our full-time starting center, Derek Lively or Daniel Gaffford. So, in this video, we’re going to take a look at both players, see what they both bring to the Mavs, their strengths, their weaknesses, and who I think should be our starting center. But how’s it going everybody? This is Marcel Martin. This is Mavericks Digest, bringing you the latest news on everything Mavericks related. And before we get started with today’s video, 46.1% of you guys watching are not subscribed. I don’t know what you guys are doing all summer long. I hope you’re being safe, drinking water, and having fun. I know school’s starting up for a few you guys. So, if you want to be up to date on Mavericks related content all year long, all season long, make sure you subscribe. But the Dallas Mavericks have a problem. It’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem that we have yet to find the answer to. A temporary answer, but not a long-term answer. And that question is, who is going to be our starting center? And last year, it really didn’t matter who it was. And a lot of fans would also agree it doesn’t matter who’s our starting center. It’s more so important who’s going to close these games alongside Anthony Davis, Cooper Flag, Kyrie when he returns, and obviously PJ Washington or Naji Marshall as those are our regular players to close out games. But last season with all the injuries, the trades, guys in and out the lineup, it was really hard to solidify who should or who will be that starting center. But with guys getting back from injury, getting back from surgery, fully recovering, getting ready for the upcoming season, the question still remains on who is going to be our starting center. And earlier today, I asked the Twitter verse a simple question. Who on the bench are you most excited to see play this upcoming season? And I had listed Naji Marshall, Max Christie, Brandon Williams, and Derek Lively. I myself am very, very excited to see all of the guys play. Every single one of them. Even even Dwight Pal. I’m excited to see him cheer his team on on the sidelines. But in this little survey, I’m very excited to see Naji Marshall. He’s been putting out a lot of good footage and film of what he’s been doing all summer long. It feels like he’s never taken a day off. But a lot of people in the comments pointed out that Derrick Lively is a starter. He’s not coming off the bench. And it made me really think because obviously last year with all the injuries, Derrick Lively didn’t play that many games and we had to rely heavily on Daniel Gaffford. And as we all know, when when Dererick Lively went down with injury, Daniel Gaffford really stepped up. He looked like one of the league’s best centers for the Dallas Mavericks. As we were battling injuries, not only with Derrick Lively, but Naji Marshall with with his illness, Luca Donis, before the trade, he was out. Daniel Gaffford held it down and he did his job. Ultimately, he did get injured. So, our big man situation was just all over the place last year. But in this upcoming season, we have a chance, hopefully, health willing, to see who truly does deserve that long-term starting role. instead of just sharing minutes every night. And again, it’s a problem, but it’s not a bad problem to have. Two players that have very similar skill sets. I mean, they both are in the top 10 for rim protection, both in the top 10 for blocks on 2K. They both bring similar skill sets, but they both have different skills as well. We all know that Derrick Livey is a great defender. He overnight feels like he became a phenomenal perimeter defender. Something that Daniel Gaffford does struggle with. But one thing that Daniel Gaffford does very well is on the offensive end. His efficiency at the rim is unparalleled. And some people only look at him as a backup center. But when you look at both Daniel Gaffford and Dererick Lively, they both have the potential to be a service a serviceable starting center in this league as well as a phenomenal backup. And that’s why a lot of fans feel like it really doesn’t matter. But down the road, it will matter because Derrick Lively as he is growing and developing, he will be looking for a pretty big bag. He will want to get paid. he will want a bigger role. Daniel Gaffford, who we did see get a very team-friendly contract extension over the summer, will also continue to want to have a role within the Dallas Mavericks organization and doesn’t want to be relegated to the end of the bench as just a backup center. But if we take a look right here, obviously from this, Daniel Gaffford played almost twice as many games as Derek Lively. So the comparison of their raw numbers, it really doesn’t do them either of them any justice. But you got Daniel Gaffford who averaged 12.3 points last season compared to Derrick Lively’s 8.7. Like I said, Derrick Lively is more of a defensive center. Daniel Gaffford is great on the offensive end. They both have strengths and weaknesses. When it comes to rebounding, it’s fairly close. You got Daniel Gaffford at 6.8, Derrick Live at 7.5. Their their assist numbers is where things do get a little bit different amongst the two bigs. You have Daniel Gaffford at 1.4 assists per game, but you have Derek I’m sorry, you have Daniel Gaffford at 1.4 four assists per game, but you have Derrick Lively at 2.4 assists per game. One thing that a lot of people were letting me know earlier today that Derrick Livey’s ability to pass the ball, his passing vision, first of all, the DHO at the top of the key, the way that he can get other guys involved while he’s also getting involved is what we’re going to need. And without Kyrie Irving for the majority of the season, I understand the need for creation. We need players that can create. Not saying we’re going to see point Derek Lively anytime soon, but a big man that can average close to three assists a game is not a bad thing at all. Especially when we know that Cooper Flag will also be running the point in some degree. We got D’Angelo Russell and obviously with Klay Thompson, we need to have guys that can really get Klay his shots to make him the most efficient version of himself. If we continue to look at the stats, steals per game, roughly the same, point4 to 6. Blocks, you got 1.8 with Daniel Gaffer, 1.6 with Derek Lively. That’s very similar. They literally both shoot the same percentage from the floor at 70.2%. Their free throws, they’re both not the best in the league. Daniel Gaffford at 68.9% and Dererick Lavy at 63%. Efficiency again, very much the same, 70.2%. And there you go. So off of this, one may think, oh, of course, Daniel Gaffford, that should be my starting center. You got Derek Lively, who’s still young, somewhat injuryprone, he can come off the bench. And in my personal opinion, that’s kind of where I’m standing. I think Daniel Gaffford has earned that starting center position. Derrick Lively in some ways can be a better option than Daniel Gaffford. I understand that. I’m not saying he needs to sit at the bench because he’s bad. But one of the things that we cannot ignore is his availability. Over the last two seasons, Derrick Lively hasn’t been able to stay relatively healthy long enough. So, where we can truly see what he can be. If we take a look right here, I had to go break it down before this video. For last season, Daniel Gaffford played 57 games and he started 31 of them. Lively played 36 games and started 29 of them. If Lively’s health holds, he’s obviously our starter. But it’s good that we have two centers who can be starters or the best backups. This is very important because even when both Lively and Gaffford are both available to play, Lively is starting more times than not. There was only seven games where Derrick Lively didn’t start in favor of Daniel Gaffford. Daniel Gaffford, I would argue the majority of the starts came when Lively was injured. And other people did point out the start of the season last year, we were losing games with Gaffford as our starter. When we switched to Lively, things change. I always looked at him as 1 A1B. You really do get the same results. It just depends on matchups. It depends on the situation, who’s going to close games, who’s going to be around that second and third quarter where things are starting to swing in our favor. Who do you put out on the floor? One of the things that Livey does struggle with though is foul trouble. That is something that he’s going to have to work out of as he’s now going to his third year. is not a rookie anymore, but I truly do believe that Derek Lively has the makings of being one of the best centers in the league. He’s a sponge. He learns and grows and gets better every single season where Daniel Gav is more he’s more solidified. He knows who he is. He knows what he can be. He there is no real trying to develop anything more out of him other than just tweaking some of the small things. But if we take a look at this, we got a few more things we want that we want to look at. rim defensive field goal percentage plus rim I’m sorry rim defensive field goal attempts plus rim defensive field goal percentage at the top there you got Daniel Gaffford so you can’t deny that Daniel Gaffford is one of the league’s best rim defenders and he’s not even 7 feet tall he’s about 610 61 I guess you can say 7 feet but he’s listed 6’10 Daniel Gaffford is an amazing rim protector and we cannot take that for granted if we take a look right here Daniel Gaffford averaged 12.2 points 7.6 rebounds and 2.2 two blocks in 35 games for the Mavericks without Luca Donas that season. And the reason why I wanted to bring this up and I couldn’t really find anything on Derek Lively. However, one of the things that I saw a lot of people mention post the Luca trade is that Gaffron and Lively are going to be inefficient that they can’t do anything without Luca. Unless you got a perennial superstar point guard that can really unlock the most out of these players like Luca, then Lively and Gaffer will be extremely inefficient. There’ll be nobody’s or like Boon out there before. Well, I guess after the Mavericks, they look like Boon, but that’s not the case at all. Plus, I love Boon. There’s no disrespect. But Daniel Gaffford and Derek Lively don’t necessarily need a legendary point guard or a perennial all-star. It definitely helps. But they showed you that, okay, there’s no Luca, but we still had Kyrie. We had Spencer when Kyrie went down. There were other players who did step up, and both Daniel Gaffrey and Derek Livey were still able to flourish. And I’d argue that next season that should still hold true. Another thing that we want to take a look at right here is Derek Lively who is an amazing defender. His shot quality is amazing. His true shooting superb. He knows his role and he plays it well. One of the things that I’ve mentioned on this channel is that Derek Lively does play a little bit clunky alongside Anthony Davis as AD is a five who wants to play the four and Derek Livey’s a five who only really knows how to play a five. So whenever they’re both on the floor and 80 sometimes floats into that center role, Dererick Lavy doesn’t necessarily know where to go. his spacing and just where he is on the court gets a little bit confused. So, I’ve obviously said many times the channel that maybe Derek Livey should be a stretch big, maybe he should extend his range to the mid-range and maybe maybe the three-point line. Without Kyrie Irving, we are missing about seven to eight threes per game. Why not let Derrick Lively take two or three a game just to space the floor, create some new offense for this team? But regardless, even without that, Derek Lively has a lot of good positives that he brings to the team. Obviously, from this graphic, it shows you whatever he’s good at, he is great at. And the last thing we’re going to take a look at right here. Oh, nope. That was it. That was everything. So, you guys let me know in the comments section down below. Do you think that Daniel Gaffford or Derrick Lively should be the starters? Which one are you feeling? Me? I understand that Derrick Lively might be the better option, but until he can show that he can stay healthy long enough to have an impact, I think it should be Daniel Gaffford. He’s obviously showed he can step up when we need him. Of course, he did get hurt. You could argue it’s because we were just all getting hurt. But I do think Daniel Gaffford should continue to be the starter until Derrick Livey’s ready. Not just skill set, but his body and health needs to also catch up. But let me know what you think in the comments section down below. We have a conversation about it. But that’s all I got for you guys today. Thanks so much to the video. Make sure to check out our Twitter and Discord links in the description below. And as always, y’all take care. Drink water. Peace.

In this video, Marcel Martin breaks down the debate on who should be the Dallas Mavericks’ starting center: Daniel Gafford or Dereck Lively. He analyzes each player’s strengths, weaknesses, and fit alongside Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. Marcel also shares which big man he believes gives the Mavs the best chance to contend this season.

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