Searching for any optimism in photos of Dereck Lively II working out with Irving, Flagg at Duke

We polled the Mavs Moneyball readership a couple of weeks back on how many games the readership expected Dereck Lively II to play in 2026-27, a year removed from a lost season of just seven games.

I was shocked at how many of you answered “zero” and seemed to mean it.

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If Lively plays zero games this year, keeping him around for the promise of “next year” after two straight full seasons lost would seem like a fool’s errand.

But perhaps you were wise to keep your expectations at a minimum. After all, our Feed post came roughly a month after Lively himself admitted, on June 26, that he’s “not able to run and jump yet” and that he’s “taking my time… more time than I need to make sure that I don’t have to deal with this foot again.”

Those were not inspiring words at the time. Lively played his final game of the 2025-26 season on Nov. 21 last year against the New Orleans Pelicans, in what ended as a 118-115 win. The team announced Lively’s season-ending surgery on Dec. 10 after persistent discomfort and swelling dogged his recovery.

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So what do these photos of Lively working out on campus at Duke, where he played his lone season of college basketball, as part of this year’s Brotherhood offseason sessions, mean? Lively certainly appears to have put in some upper-body work while his right foot has been out of commission.

Mavericks center Dereck Lively II works out on campus at Duke University in September 2026. | Courtesy Dallas Mavericks

Sure, the photos of Lively from last weekend are still images. He’s not featured in the scrimmage highlights that the Duke social media team has put out there, like his teammates Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg are. He’s still not ready for that kind of run, which, yes, still gives massive doubt as to whether and when he’ll be able to return to full-speed action on an NBA court any time soon.

But we’re searching. We’re seekers. We’re searching for any signs of optimism in Lively’s recovery arc here. And we’re finding it at the Gun Show. He looks absolutely yoked, relative at least to the skinny, athletic youngster we knew him as when he last consistently gave the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/searching-optimism-photos-dereck-lively-120500923.html

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Publish date : 2026-09-17 12:05:00

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