Dallas Mavericks rookie Dereck Lively II may have unknowingly started a beef with teammate Dwight Powell. The first-round pick reposted a graphic on X (formerly called Twitter) poking fun at Powell and former Mavericks star JaVale McGee. While the graphic highlighted Lively’s finishing percentage, one of his best attributes, the caption, which read, “We used to have Dwight Powell and Javale McGee as our centers man I’m crying real man tears,” was directly trolling his current teammate.
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The rookie likely reposted the graphic without reading the caption, but an error like that could affect team harmony.
At the time of writing, Lively hasn’t fixed his mistake and the post is still on his account. While the error of reposting may have been unforced, the decision to leave it up will certainly irk Powell, who has already seen his playing time diminish by 1/4th compared to last year due to Lively’s emergence.
The Mavericks have won nine of their last ten games and are emerging as a force to be reckoned with ahead of the playoffs, but small instances like these could prove detrimental to their goal to bring a championship to Dallas. While the team is unsure of Doncic’s consistency, going forward, they need all their weapons. Lively should have been steadfast in rectifying his error, but surprisingly he’s yet to address it.
Dereck Lively and Daniel Gafford’s impactful campaign
While Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are undoubtedly the Mavericks’ top two choices on offense, the team’s centers, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford have been tremendous in exploiting the gaps left by opposing teams trying to mitigate the superstar duo’s threat. Lively and Gafford are averaging 8.8 and 11.8 points, respectively. While those numbers don’t stand out, it’s their conversion rate that has made them impactful.
Since the All-Star break, the duo has been the best finishers in the league. Gafford’s 88.2 and Lively’s 77.5 field goal percentages rank first and second in the league. They’ve been critical in helping the Mavericks recover from their midseason slump and climb to sixth in the stacked Western Conference standings.
Dallas will likely avoid the play-in tournament and could climb to as high as fourth in the Western Conference table if they continue on their current trajectory and the Los Angeles Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans slip up in the home stretch of their regular season schedule. The Mavericks have hit peak form at the opportune time and could secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a strong finish to their regular season campaign.
Regardless of where they finish in the standings, the Mavericks are among the most dangerous teams in the West. With Doncic and Irving leading the charge and impactful players like Gafford and Lively playing their roles to perfection, they’ll be a tough matchup for any team in either conference. The Mavericks have emerged as dark horses to win the championship, and as long as their team synergy remains intact, they could beat the odds, like they did in 2011.
