A crowded frontcourt has forced Dallas to field offers for their veteran rim protector, seeking first-round capital after matching a key rival's bid for Moussa Cissé.
The Dallas Mavericks have plenty of options at the center spot now after matching the two-year, $4.7 million offer sheet Moussa Cissé signed with the New York Knicks.
And that's a problem.
Dallas has too much invested in four different big men to keep the group constructed as it currently is.
Cissé just received a multi-year deal, Santi Aldama arrived via trade less than two weeks ago, Dereck Lively II was a lottery pick only three years ago and Daniel Gafford signed a three-year extension with Dallas last summer.
Of the four, Gafford is the one the Mavericks are reportedly shopping.
Per NBA insider Marc Stein, Dallas is "still fielding offers" for Gafford — and this isn't the first time.
In late June, Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints revealed that the Mavericks were "seeking" first-round draft capital in exchange for Gafford while adding the veteran rim protector's future with the franchise is "very much up in the air."
The Mavs are in wheeling-and-dealing mode as of Sunday. They are getting former No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher and sending out Ryan Nembhard in three-way trade keyed by Thunder trading Lu Dort to the Hawks ...
And Dallas likely isn't done.
While Gafford still holds enough individual value to garner a net-positive return for Masai Ujiri and Dallas, the Mavericks may have missed a golden opportunity to unload the 27-year-old.
Remember, Gafford was originally acquired in 2024 from the Washington Wizards for Richaun Holmes and a first-round pick (which later became Kyshawn George) because of his fit next to Luka Dončić.
As Mavs fans know all too well, Dončić loves a good lob partner.
So why didn't Ujiri try to dangle Gafford over the Los Angeles Lakers ... who didn't try to hide their desire for an upgrade at the five-spot whatsoever?
Los Angeles ultimately found its guy in Walker Kessler, but acquiring him cost two future first-round picks, two first-round pick swaps and a four-year, $130 million contract.
Perhaps Ujiri reached out and those conversations simply never became public.
Or perhaps he believed the Lakers’ return package wouldn’t justify the fanbase backlash of helping Los Angeles again, especially after the previous regime traded its franchise player there.
That would make sense.
But having an opportunity to cash in on Dončić's previously established relationship with Gafford, knowing the Lakers were after his exact archetype of player and passing it up doesn't.
We'll have to wait and see what the Mavericks end up doing with Gafford before coming to any conclusions. But now that there's confirmation of Dallas' intentions to move him, the price LA paid for Kessler will loom over whatever return Ujiri ultimately accepts.
