The Dallas Mavericks selected Dereck Lively II from Duke University with the No. 12 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. The 7-foot-1 forward gives the Mavericks another body in the middle as the team looks to address its interior defense and rebounding.

Lively, 19, averaged 5.2 points on 65.8% shooting, 5.4 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 2.4 blocks in 20.6 minutes per game while starting 24 of his 34 appearances in his one season with Duke. He was named to the 2023 ACC All-Freshman Team and ACC All-Defensive Team.

The Mavericks initially held the No. 10 pick but traded it along with Davis Bertans to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for the No. 12 pick and a traded player exception. The Thunder received Cason Wallace, who was drafted tenth.

This was the first time in franchise history that the Mavericks held the No. 10 pick in the draft. However, it was the seventeenth time that Dallas had held a top-10 selection and the first time since 2018. The team held the No. 5 overall pick and selected Trae Young that year. The Mavericks traded Young that night for the rights to Luka Doncic, who the Hawks selected third.

The Mavericks have made several notable top-10 selections in the past. They include Mark Aguirre (No. 1, 1981), Rolando Blackman (No. 9, 1981), Dale Ellis (No. 9, 1983), Sam Perkins (No. 4, 1984), Detlef Schrempf (No. 8, 1985), Roy Tarpley (No. 7, 1986), Jim Jackson (No. 4, 1992), Jamal Mashburn (No. 4, 1993) and Jason Kidd (No. 2, 1994).

In 1998, the Mavericks made a franchise-altering draft night deal when they acquired the rights to the ninth overall pick Dirk Nowitzki and the nineteenth overall selection Pat Garrity from Milwaukee in exchange for the sixth overall pick Robert Traylor.

Dallas did not have a second-round draft pick entering the evening. The Mavericks traded their 2023 second-round selection to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a three-team deal involving the Detroit Pistons to acquire forward James Johnson on November 27, 2020. Dallas was one of 10 teams without a second-round pick this year.