BOSTON — Daniel Gafford walked across the parquet floor Wednesday afternoon after Dallas’ practice at TD Garden with a smile on his face and royal blue tights clinging to his tree trunk legs. The last time Gafford, the Mavericks’ starting center throughout this run to the NBA Finals, walked this court, he played less than six minutes for the Mavs in a March 1 game against the Celtics.
Gafford was also scheduled to play in Boston on Feb. 9, but the previous day served as the annual trade deadline — which took Gafford away from Washington and the Wizards’ impending meeting with the Celtics. “That’s crazy… we were actually coming here to play in Boston,” Gafford said.
The 6-foot-2 center from Arkansas drove to Washington’s training facility in Southeast D.C. that Thursday afternoon, having heard his name on the trading block since mid-December. The Rockets were trying to improve their center position before acquiring Steven Adams from Memphis. New York for a time made calls to rival teams, according to league sources, shortly after Mitchell Robinson needed ankle surgery. Dallas, however, seemed to prioritize Gafford throughout the run-up to the 3pm ET deadline. “I think this was the only main target for me,” Gafford said.
However, there was skepticism around the NBA front office that the Wizards would end up moving Gafford, not to mention other Washington starters like point guard Tyus Jones and shooting guard Kyle Kuzma. The Wizards’ respective asking prices for each of their veterans were much higher, sources said, than most rival teams were prepared to offer. Dallas has also been involved in dialogue, according to league personnel, about the possibility of landing Kuzma.
So there Gafford was standing in the Wizards’ parking lot when he got a call from Washington general manager Will Dawkins.
“There’s a possibility you could go to Dallas,” Gafford recalled the Wizards executive saying.
Gafford understood the nature of the business. In 2021, he was part of a three-team trade deadline deal that sent Gafford from Chicago to Washington after the Bulls team that selected him in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft wanted to part ways before Gafford’s second contract. Gafford told Dawkins to inform him of the outcome of this latest deadline, and in the meantime he waited in his car. Thirty minutes later, Dawkins called back. The deal with the Mavericks was indeed falling through after Dallas found a way to send a 2024 first-round pick from OKC to the Wizards.
“When it comes to emotions, when it comes to being traded, you can be mad, you can be happy,” Gafford said. “I didn’t really have a crazy reaction to it, because I’ve been in that situation before. So I took it as one door closed, another door open for me.”
In his first game with the Mavericks, a 35-point rout of the Thunder team that facilitated his trade – and which Dallas would flip in the second round of this postseason – Gafford realized, out loud, how wide the door could open. for him when setting screens for Luka Dončić. Gafford leaps like a pogo stick, his long arms providing a huge catch radius to finish throws around the rim. “When he threw the first pitch to me, the crowd went crazy,” Gafford said. The American Airlines Center quickly reminded him of Bud Walton Arena, where Gafford played home games for the Razorbacks. “Being in an atmosphere like that, with just love and energy throughout the arena,” said Gafford, who earned the starting job on March 7 and hasn’t looked back, “I feel like that’s something I’ve missed throughout the entire season. my career, of course.”
This TD Garden crowd will present a much more hostile environment. But there’s another familiar facet to this final game for Gafford that should help him feel even more at home, anchoring Dallas’ new defensive identity. Kristaps Porziņģis, Boston’s never-ending center, overlapped with Gafford for a season and a half with the Wizards after Dallas traded the former All-Star to the nation’s capital and before Porziņģis left for the Celtics last summer.
They fought in training every day. They started together in Washington’s frontcourt. “He always gave me tips,” Gafford said. “He was one of the guys who always motivated me in the things I did on the floor.” For all the talk about the increased spacing Boston’s five-out lineup will present to the Mavericks’ defense, especially with Porziņģis back from a calf injury, Gafford is more than prepared for that particular assignment. He knows Porzingis’ tendencies.
“When you get into his airspace, he still shoots at you,” Gafford said. And there’s a trick in Porziņģis’ bag that Gafford knows not to fall for. “Just make sure not to be too aggressive when he does his sweeping motion.”
