Dereck Lively II’s breakout rookie year was one of the major reasons why the Mavs made it to the Finals last season. Sure enough, fans expect the Center to take an even bigger leap this year. And he has been doing great so far, showing a significant rise in all his stats. However, concerns grew when Lively got ruled out of tonight’s game with a right shoulder sprain. And Jason Kidd gave further updates on the youngster’s health.

Well, Dereck injured his shoulder during warmups ahead of the Pacers game. As per the Mavs head coach, he will get an MRI to assess the severity of the issue.

Fortunately, sources have expressed optimism that it is not a significant injury. That means there is a chance we might see Lively back on the court very soon. However, nothing is certain until the MRI results come out. Obviously, Dereck’s absence hurt his team as they had already been struggling due to their lack of size even before he got injured. That’s because Maxi Kleber has been sidelined for five straight games due to a hamstring injury and there is no timeline on his return so far.

While everyone expected Daniel Gafford or Dwight Powell to get increased minutes in Lively’s absence, it was Naji Marshall who got the nod from Kidd. Yes, the small forward played 34 minutes and had a decent performance with 20 points and five rebounds. Unfortunately, that was not enough to help his team win.

Dereck Lively II’s injury could cause hindrance in his ‘Championship’ goal

Obviously, Lively was disappointed that he couldn’t cap off his incredible rookie season with a title after being inches away from victory. And he revealed on Media Day what he plans on improving this year to get a chance at redemption, “Really just trying to be able to cover anybody’s mistakes. You know, I’m in the paint, so I’m guiding everybody.” Yes, the seven-footer planned on being a vocal leader and be as defensively sound as possible.

Moreover, he even revealed that he has been working on his skills throughout the summer, “I really focused a lot more on owning the paint.” That included working on his strength, ball handling, defensive IQ, left hand finishing and much more. “It’s just been a lot of focusing on the details this summer making sure that I can correct a lot of mistakes that I was doing last year.” Lively added. Sure enough, he had only one goal in mind “A Championship.”

However, if the MRI results reveal an injury that requires him to miss more games, that could halt his momentum and even hurt the Mavs in their title pursuit. Hopefully, it won’t come to that as we wait for further update on the youngster’s health ahead of Wednesday’s Bulls game.