Dereck Lively II vs. Hakeem Olajuwon Season by Season Comparison

Side by side comparison of each NBA season of Hakeem Olajuwon 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, 16 less than Hakeem Olajuwon, who played 18. Dereck Lively II had the first of his seasons in 2023-24, while Hakeem Olajuwon had his rookie season in 1984-85. 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	Hakeem Olajuwon
Season	2023-24	1984-85
Team	Dallas Mavericks	Houston Rockets
Honors & Awards	-	All-Defensive Second Team
	-	All-Rookie First Team
	All-Rookie Second Team	-
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Mavericks Lost NBA Finals	Rockets Lost West Conf 1st Rd

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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	+12.0	+11.8	+2.9	+2.1	+5.0	+0.3	+0.5	+1.3	-2.0	-1.6	+4.3	+9.9	+.209				+3.4	+5.2	+.107
Hakeem Olajuwon	82	35.5	20.6	5.4	6.5	11.9	1.4	1.2	2.7	2.9	4.2	8.3	15.3	.538	0.0	0.0	-	4.1	6.7	.613
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:	+16	+15.4	+13.3	+3.9	+1.7	+5.6	+0.1	+1.0	+1.6	-1.2	-2.1	+5.4	+13.1	+.197				+2.7	+6.3	+.112
Hakeem Olajuwon	5	37.4	21.2	6.6	6.4	13.0	1.4	1.4	2.6	2.2	4.4	8.4	17.6	.477	0.0	0.0	-	4.4	9.2	.478

Season 2
	Dereck Lively II	Hakeem Olajuwon
Season	2024-25	1985-86
Team	Dallas Mavericks	Houston Rockets
Honors & Awards	-	All-NBA Second Team
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Did Not Play	Rockets Lost NBA 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:	+32	+13.2	+14.8	+2.0	+2.0	+4.0	+0.4	+1.4	+1.8	-1.8	-1.2	+5.5	+12.2	+.176				+3.8	+5.9	+.015
Hakeem Olajuwon	68	36.3	23.5	4.9	6.6	11.5	2.0	2.0	3.4	2.9	4.0	9.2	17.5	.526	0.0	0.0	-	5.1	7.9	.645
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Dereck Lively II	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Hakeem Olajuwon	20	38.3	26.9	5.1	6.8	11.8	2.0	2.0	3.5	2.2	4.4	10.3	19.4	.530	0.0	0.1	.000	6.4	10.0	.638

Additional Years
* Hakeem Olajuwon played 16 seasons more than Dereck Lively II in the NBA. In that period—his seasons 3 to 18, from 1987 to 2002—Hakeem Olajuwon played in 13 Playoffs and won two NBA Championships. In those 16 extra years over Dereck Lively II, Hakeem Olajuwon got these achievements:
Honors & Awards	2 Finals MVP 1 Season MVP 6 All-NBA First Team 2 All-NBA Second Team 3 All-NBA Third Team 5 All-Defensive First Team 3 All-Defensive Second Team 2 Defensive Player of the Year 2 Rebounds Leader 3 Blocks Leader 10 All-Star Game