Dereck Lively II vs. David Thompson Season by Season Comparison

Side by side comparison of each NBA season of David Thompson and Dereck Lively II, from their rookie seasons to their last year played, in chronological order with awards, stats, championships and playoff performance of their teams every year.

Who had the better rookie season? Who had best stats in their 10th season? Who won a championship first? These questions and many others, are answered here.

Dereck Lively II played 2 years in the NBA, 6 less than David Thompson, who played 8. Dereck Lively II had the first of his seasons in 2023-24, while David Thompson had his rookie season in 1976-77. With that starting point, here you can take a look at each of their seasons side by side and compare how their careers evolved in achievements, awards and championships won, the stats they recorded both in the Regular Season and the Playoffs and how their teams performed in the postseason.

Rookie Season
	Dereck Lively II	David Thompson
Season	2023-24	1976-77
Team	Dallas Mavericks	Denver Nuggets
Honors & Awards	-	All-NBA First Team
	All-Rookie Second Team	-
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Mavericks Lost NBA Finals	Nuggets Lost West Conf Semis

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Rookie Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Dereck Lively II	55	23.5	8.8	2.5	4.4	6.9	1.1	0.7	1.4	0.9	2.6	4.0	5.4	.747	0.0	0.0	-	0.7	1.5	.506
difference:	+27	+13.1	+17.1	+0.8	+2.0	+2.8	+3.0	+0.7	+0.8		-0.3	+6.0	+14.4	+.240				+5.1	+6.1	+.260
David Thompson	82	36.6	25.9	1.7	2.4	4.1	4.1	1.4	0.6	-	2.9	10.0	19.8	.507	-	-	-	5.8	7.6	.766
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Dereck Lively II	21	22.0	7.9	2.7	4.7	7.4	1.3	0.4	1.0	1.0	2.3	3.0	4.5	.674	0.0	0.0	-	1.7	2.9	.590
difference:	+15	+17.5	+16.8	+0.5	+1.7	+2.2	+2.7	+1.1	+0.3		-1.4	+6.3	+15.7	+.211				+4.3	+5.9	+.089
David Thompson	6	39.5	24.7	2.2	3.0	5.2	4.0	1.5	0.7	-	3.7	9.3	20.2	.463	-	-	-	6.0	8.8	.679

Season 2
	Dereck Lively II	David Thompson
Season	2024-25	1977-78
Team	Dallas Mavericks	Denver Nuggets
Honors & Awards	-	All-NBA First Team
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Did Not Play	Nuggets Lost West Conf Finals

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2nd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Dereck Lively II	36	23.1	8.7	2.9	4.6	7.5	2.4	0.6	1.6	1.1	2.8	3.7	5.3	.702	0.0	0.0	-	1.3	2.0	.630
difference:	+44	+14.7	+18.5	+0.9	+1.7	+2.6	+2.1	+0.6	+0.4	-2.0	-0.1	+6.6	+14.5	+.181				+5.2	+6.4	+.148
David Thompson	80	37.8	27.2	2.0	2.9	4.9	4.5	1.2	1.2	3.1	2.7	10.3	19.8	.521	-	-	-	6.5	8.4	.778
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Dereck Lively II	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
David Thompson	13	37.0	25.2	1.4	2.7	4.1	4.0	0.7	1.6	3.0	2.6	10.1	22.4	.450	-	-	-	5.1	6.2	.825

Additional Years
* David Thompson played 6 seasons more than Dereck Lively II in the NBA. In that period—his seasons 3 to 8, from 1979 to 1984—David Thompson played in 3 Playoffs. In those 6 extra years over Dereck Lively II, David Thompson got these achievements:
Honors & Awards	2 All-Star Game 1 All-Star Game MVP