BOSTON — Daniel Gafford walked across the 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 NBA Finals run, stepped on 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 day before served as the annual trade deadline — which plucked Gafford away from Washington and the Wizards’ impending date with the Celtics. “The crazy thing…we were actually going here to play Boston,” Gafford said.
The 6-foot-10 center from Arkansas visited the Washington practice facility in Southeast Washington on Thursday afternoon after hearing 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, called rival teams, according to league sources, in the wake of Mitchell Robinson’s ankle surgery. Dallas, however, seemed to prioritize Gafford throughout the period leading up to the 3 p.m. ET deadline. “I think that was the one that was my main target,” Gafford said.
Still, there was skepticism among NBA front offices that the Wizards would ultimately move Gafford, let alone other Washington starters like point guard Tyus Jones and scoring wing Kyle Kuzma. The Wizards’ asking prices for each of their veterans were far higher, sources said, than most rival teams were willing to offer. Dallas has also been involved in dialogue, according to league staff, about possibly landing Kuzma.
So Gafford was there, in slow motion, in the Wizards parking lot, when he received a call from Washington general manager Will Dawkins.
“It’s possible you’re going to Dallas,” Gafford recalled telling the Wizards executive.
Gafford understood this nature of the business. In 2021, he was part of a three-team, deadline deal that shipped Gafford from Chicago to Washington after the Bulls team that selected him in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft wanted to part before Gafford’s second contract. Gafford asked Dawkins to let him know what the outcome of this latest delay would be, and in the meantime he waited in his car. Thirty minutes later, Dawkins called back. The Mavericks deal was indeed on the decline 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 might be angry, you might be happy,” Gafford said. “I didn’t really have a crazy reaction, because I’ve been in this situation before. So I just took that as a sign that one door was closing, another door was opening for me.
His very first game with the Mavericks, a 35-point rout of the Thunder team that facilitated his trade – and which Dallas would overthrow in the second round of these playoffs – Gafford realized, very clearly, to what extent the door could open for him. when setting up screens for Luka Dončić. Gafford jumps like a pogo stick, his long arms providing a huge catch radius to finish throws around the rim. “When he threw the first lob 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 won the starting spot on March 7 and hasn’t looked back , “I feel like that’s something that I’ve been missing throughout my career, because of course.”
This crowd at TD Garden will present a much more hostile environment. But there’s another familiar side to this Finals game for Gafford that should help him feel at home, anchoring Dallas’ new defensive identity. Kristaps Porziņģis, Boston’s long-running center, rode 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 practice every day. They started together on Washington’s frontcourt. “He was always giving me advice,” Gafford said. “He was one of the guys that always motivated me when it came to things I did on the field.” For all the talk about the greater spacing that Boston’s five-out formation will present for the Mavericks’ defense, especially with Porziņģis returning from a calf injury, Gafford is more than prepared for this particular assignment. He knows Porzingis’ tendencies.
“When you crawl into his airspace, he keeps shooting at you,” Gafford said. And there’s something in Porziņģis’ bag that Gafford knows not to fall into. “Just make sure you’re not too aggressive when he does his sweeping move.”
