The Dallas Mavericks have a busy offseason ahead, as they look to fill their head coaching vacancy and reshape their roster around Cooper Flagg. The coaching search is well underway, with both big college names and NBA veterans in the mix. Rumors are also swirling about potential trades, including the possibility of Daniel Gafford being on the move.
Gafford was recently asked about new President Masai Ujiri and the general state of the Mavs. His response was professional and politically correct. My
first exposure to his comments were in writing, but then I heard the audio clip in more complete context. While I’m generally reticent to comment on something that could be a non-story, the difference between what I read and what I heard elicited different reactions from me, despite being the same commentary.
The written quote
The quote I read from Gafford was “[Ujiri] did make sure he called me and we had a good conversation on the phone and I’m excited for the season.” My immediate reaction was that Gafford was more likely than not going to be part of the future in Dallas, at least in the immediate term.
It would not be surprising that Ujiri has reached out to and/or met with everyone on the roster at this point, perhaps even discussing how he saw each player fitting (or not) going forward. With that backdrop, Gafford’s comments struck me as indicative of him being satisfied with the conversation and excited for next year in Dallas (although he didn’t actually say “Dallas”).
The audio clip
When I listened to his full response in context, I had a much different reaction.
Listening to Gafford and seeing his mannerisms struck me as a player whose future in Dallas is much more tenuous. Gafford opens with “It is a business,” before continuing with “I’m not necessarily surprised when it comes to some of the things he’s done with the organization, because I’m pretty sure he already had that in his back pocket whenever he got hired here.” What Ujiri has done to date is part ways with Jason Kidd and hire Mike Schmitz as GM. The latter likely was something he had in mind in the months leading up to his hire, but the former struck me as a comment from a player resigned to a new regime cleaning house. Gafford continued with a somewhat standoffish “I’m just watching from afar… just watching from the background” to wrap up his response.
Pausing for a moment for the sake of clarity – I am not a body language expert, nor do I presume to know Daniel Gafford so intimately as to be able to predict with accuracy what he is feeling. My purpose here is simply to follow up on mock trade proposals featuring Gafford which we’ve previously covered, as there is at least a possibility he could be moved during the offseason. I also wanted to share my unique experience having different reactions to the same general comments when reading them vs. hearing them, and to open a discussion as to how our readers took both.
For my part, I’ve flipped from thinking Gafford was comfortably in the fold, to a higher probability he could be moved, once I saw and heard him. The Mavericks are clearly looking to rebuild and a player like Gafford may not be part of that plan. Should they move him, the front office hopefully has a very strong indication that Dereck Lively will be back to his old self. Gafford is a true center, and even if the Mavs retain Marvin Bagley and Lively remains healthy, there are currently too few of those on the roster.
Sound off in the comments if you think this is all smoke, or if the different angles struck you similarly or differently than I took them.
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