Dereck Lively II must fix this flaw before Mavericks career implodes

The Dallas Mavericks got more unfortunate news in the injury department on Tuesday, as it was announced that Dereck Lively II will miss at least three games (and likely much longer) due to discomfort in his right foot. While this seems to be a re-aggravation of Lively II's offseason foot surgery, this highlights how much Lively II must improve his lower-body strength moving forward.

Lively II had just returned from a right knee sprain on November 14 before this recent news had come out, and lower-body injuries have told the story of his career up to this point. Lively II has missed 46 percent of potential regular-season games for the Mavericks up to this point in his career, and while he's extremely athletic and has decent strength to play the five position in the NBA, it's becoming clear he needs to become more sturdy from an injury prevention standpoint.

It's hard for taller players to mitigate lower-body injuries given their body types, so Lively II dealing with this many complications so early in his career isn't ideal whatsoever. Even if many of his injuries have happened by freak occurrence, he and the Mavericks have to be in the mindset of doing whatever they can to reduce his risk of injury at this point.

If they don't, his once-promising career could hit the fan.

Dereck Lively II must add more lower-body strength

Of course, adding more muscle and becoming sturdier in the lower body doesn't automatically denote Lively II will start producing all the time, as former Maverick Kristaps Porzingis infamously had to cut weight because he didn't feel like himself after coming into one season at an increased playing weight. However, Lively II has primarily dealt with lower-body injuries up to this point in his career, so getting stronger from that perspective may be needed for him.

It'd be a travesty to have to split up Lively II from Cooper Flagg this early in both of their respective careers, as Flagg has already showcased tremendous ability as a pick-and-roll lob passer. Both of the former Duke Blue Devils have what it takes to be an All-Star duo in Dallas for years to come, but Lively II's injuries are already proving to derail that proposition early on.

Given Lively II's work ethic, it's without a doubt that he's been doing whatever he can to try and prevent these injuries to stay on the court. Despite this, the Mavericks' athletic training department has already mismanaged his lower-body injuries in his early career. They must take the utmost precaution whilst also doing whatever they can to help strengthen his quadriceps, knees, and ankles going forward.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what is causing these injuries for Lively II, as aforementioned, but unless he experienced some sort of weird revelation like Porzingis did when it came to adding lower-body strength, this would definitely be the best course of action he and the Mavericks could take to prolong his career. Especially since Lively II plays far more on the interior compared to a stretch-big like Porzingis.

Dereck Lively II's career is just getting started, but if he can't remain healthy, his star potential is going to become an afterthought in Big D.