{"id":58820,"date":"2025-05-27T04:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T04:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/58820\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T04:58:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T04:58:16","slug":"mavericks-have-valuable-offseason-trade-asset-in-reliable-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/58820\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks Have Valuable Offseason Trade Asset in Reliable Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> might have one too many big men in their lineup. While depth at a position is valuable and enviable across the NBA, their center and power forward group is fairly crowded, which could lead to some shifting around over the offseason. With no direct shade lobbied in Anthony Davis<\/a>\u2018s direction, the Mavericks would do well to have reliable depth in the paint. That said, with the expected addition of Cooper Flagg<\/a> barring any drastic Nico Harrison 2.0 blockbuster trades involving their No.1 draft pick, it makes at least one big man on the Mavericks roster expendable they could trade: Daniel Gafford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mavericks Have Valuable Offseason Trade Asset in Reliable Center
\nMavericks\u2019 Daniel Gafford could be the odd big man out in Dallas with a likely trade happening this summer<\/p>\n

As currently constructed, the Mavs have Dereck Lively II<\/a>, Dwight Powell<\/a>, Gafford, and the main character, Davis, as part of their center and power-forward depth. If you want to include P.J. Washington<\/a> in the mix, it\u2019s fair, given his official position as a power forward. However, Washington spends much more time hovering around the perimeter than he does closer to the basket. Positionally speaking, Gafford and Powell are the Mav\u2019s two centers, but Lively and Davis can slide into the five at any point during the season. With Flagg soon to join the lineup, although he\u2019s not primarily a center, again, he can play the position, further cramping the Mavericks\u2019 big-man group.<\/p>\n

So, where does that leave Dallas? Likely, one of their big men will be moved this summer. Gafford, a pivotal piece in the Mavericks finals run last season following a midseason trade, is the likely trade chip.\u00a0According to Bill Simmons, he foresees that Gafford will be in demand for the many teams that desperately need a center.\u00a0On his podcast,\u00a0<\/a>The Bill Simmons Podcast<\/a>, the former ESPN personality believes teams like the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> and Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> are possible trade prospects for Gafford.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of teams that need a center,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI think [Daniel] Gaffford\u2019s going to be in demand, too. I think both of those guys, if Dallas tries to trade Gafford, I think he\u2019s gonna have real value, because we just see it every year \u2014 these teams like the Lakers, that killed them that they couldn\u2019t play Jaxson Hayes<\/a>. Going down the line, Milwaukee couldn\u2019t find any center to play because [Brook] Lopez<\/a> finally got old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mavs have plenty of options without Gafford<\/p>\n

Again, depth is valuable and enviable across the league, and it\u2019s what every team wishes they had, especially as playoff and championship contenders. While the Mavericks weren\u2019t either of those this past season, the trade for Davis was meant to vault them to that status. Despite Kyrie Irving<\/a>\u2018s injury and the expectation that he will miss a significant portion of the 2025-26 season, Dallas doesn\u2019t appear willing to make it a gap year. Irving or no Irving, they want to contend, and the recent report that they\u2019re searching for a point guard to step in for Kyrie proves that.<\/p>\n

\"DallasApr 2, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis (3) celebrates with Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II (2) after scoring during the fourth quarter against the Atlanta Hawks at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

If Dallas does trade Gafford, it won\u2019t induce a hit so hard that they can\u2019t recover from it. With Davis on the floor and Lively, Flagg, and Powell in tow, the Mavericks have more than enough size and depth at their disposal. As for Gafford, he\u2019ll almost certainly find more playing time in a larger role elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks might have one too many big men in their lineup. While depth at a position…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[495,7,369,225,686,149,4057,2619,1264,5991,14760,967,166,6,9410],"class_list":{"0":"post-58820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brook-lopez","11":"tag-cooper-flagg","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-dallas-mavericks","14":"tag-dallasmavericks","15":"tag-daniel-gafford","16":"tag-dereck-lively-ii","17":"tag-dwight-powell","18":"tag-jaxon-hayes","19":"tag-kyrie-irving","20":"tag-mavericks","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-p-j-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114578030846000718","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}