One of the reasons the Dallas Mavericks are well protected around the basket these days is because of the midseason
acquisition of center Daniel Gafford.
But looking back, Gafford could have been bringing that protection a few years earlier.
On the day of the 2019 NBA Draft, the Mavs had the 37th overall pick and decided to draft Deividas Sirvydis, who they quickly traded to Detroit. With the very next pick, the Chicago Bulls drafted Gafford.
Years later, word leaked to Gafford that: “Some of the (Mavs) staff, they were saying throughout my pre-draft, they were saying they always had, of course, eyes on me. I didn’t know where I was going when I had came out (of Arkansas) my second year, and they were just telling me stories on how the pre-draft went.
“I said, ‘Yeah, it sounds like I could have been here my first year (in 2019).’ “
Gafford was a workhorse at Arkansas where he earned Southeastern Conference All-Freshman team honors, and first-team all-SEC his sophomore season before he declared for the NBA Draft. He eventually played a season-and-a-half with the Bulls before they traded him to the Washington Wizards in 2021.
In his lone appearance in the NBA postseason, Gafford went head-to-head against Philadelphia 76ers all-world center Joel Embiid in the first round 
of the 2021 Eastern Conference playoffs. And what a memorable matchup that was — for Gafford.
“When I got to Washington it was my first time to fully play against Joel Embiid, and man, that was a time,” Gafford said Thursday while smiling. “That one series, that alone helped me mentally lock in to how I wanted to prepare for the game — prepare mentally, physically, emotionally, everything when it came to off the floor and on the floor.
“I don’t know if it was the first game or the second game, but (Embiid) hit a jump shot on me. It was like a fadeaway. My hand was right there, and he still hit it. For sure, 100 percent, I thought I would block the shot, and I looked back and the ball was going through the hoop. That’s when I was like, ‘Yeah, this is insane.’ “
Gafford averaged 11.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and two blocks in that series, which the Sixers won in five games. He also shot a sizzling 84.6 percent from the field, which is the NBA all-time record for field goal shooting in a series.
Still, Gafford walked about recalling the teaching tools he learned in that series from Embiid, who scored 88 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in the first three games, but didn’t play any more due to a knee injury after playing just 11 minutes in Game 4.
“Some of the shots he made in that series were crazy,” Gafford said. “It was a learning period for me, because I was trying to find ways to put myself in a position not to really be in foul trouble so much.
“I was playing against a guy that was really good at drawing fouls. So, it was like, ‘Ok, this is a learning point for me. Now I have to learn how to really move my face.’ “
Needless to say, Gafford has learned how to move his face and much, much more since his playoff indoctrination against Embiid. The Mavs are hoping that knowledge will be on full display when they play Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round Western Conference playoff series at the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. CT.
Since joining the Mavs via a trade with the Wizards on Feb. 8, Gafford has been a godsend while – along with rookie Dereck Lively II – giving Dallas a viable one-two punch in the middle of its rotation.
“Gaff has been important, being able to start, bring him off the bench, start,” coach Jason Kidd said. “He’s about the team. He’s giving us something that we haven’t had here.
“And to be able to have Gaff and D-Live – two guys who can protect the rim and protect the paint — and then on the offensive end being able to finish with the lobs (is great). When you talk about Gaff, he’s been mentioned with one of the best in the world to do it, and that’s Wilt (Chamberlain), and that just doesn’t happen every day. He’s been a big part of our success.”
Chamberlain converted an NBA-record 35 consecutive field goals in 1967, and at two separate junctures this season Gafford made 33 and 23 field goals consecutively. In essence, he has fit in so seamlessly with lob passes leading to dunks coming from Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving and others.
“In all honesty, the chemistry when I got here was already through the roof, and when I got here I kind of just piggy-backed off of it,” Gafford said. “At the end of the day everybody was playing for others and everybody was happy.
“The energy was positive, and everybody wanted to really just play to win.”
But there was that period of time from Feb. 25-March 5 when the Mavs lost five of six games – including twice to the Indiana Pacers – that tested this team’s resolve. However, the Mavs re-grouped, then impressively hammered out 16 wins in their next 18 games and won the Southwest Division title and 50 games to boot.
“We came together, talked to each other, spent some time with each other, and just kind of hashed it out and figured out ways to talk to each other,” Gafford said. “In this league it’s a lot of times where it’s a lot of guys — you’ve got leaders, you’ve got vets and then you’ve got the guys that are under the vets — at the end of the day there’s a lot of people that don’t really want to talk to each other. And that’s just because of how life is.
“It’s all about how you react, it’s all about how you approach someone. And figuring out ways to do that the right way helps the team really just progress and take that step forward, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Once the Mavs got on solid footing, they took that step forward, got locked in and were eventually the best team in the NBA from March 7-April 10.
Gafford said: “Kyrie said early in the season when we went through that slump, he was saying: ‘We’ve got a target on our backs. At the end of the day everybody is going to come out and give us their best game.’ And that’s what they were doing, especially at the time we were losing games when I first got here.
“Everybody was coming out and just giving us their best basketball, and we weren’t adjusting to it. Once we found ways to come together and build that — I would say — positive chemistry as a team, it’s something that helped us out.”
And because the Mavs built that positive chemistry as a team, their reward is to go against a star-studded future Hall of Fame Clippers’ roster that includes Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden and Russell Westbrook. All four guys have an affinity for playing downhill and attacking the basket, which means that’ll constantly be somewhere in Gafford’s space.
But that’s absolutely OK with Gafford.
“It really just gives me the motivation to just go out and just do my job in an elite level just to be the best that I can be at any given standpoint,” he said. “When it comes to possession-possession game, night-in-night-out, just being there for my teammates on the back end trying to anchor the defense (is a plus).
“And just being the loudest guy out there trying to make sure everybody knows where to be, knows where screens are coming from and just pretty much knowing that you’ve got somebody back here who is going to keep you protected at the end of the day just in case something breaks down on the front line (is a bonus).”
It’s an assignment Gafford truly treasures. Even if it took him an extra five years to get to Dallas to accept this assignment.
“When I first got here, it was just like I already played here,” Gafford said. “I told the media when I first got here it was just like I was already on this team when I first got here.
“I was in the right place at the right time. Guys were telling me things to do, things not to do, how to really just succeed on the floor.”
And he’s done exactly that.
X: @DwainPrice
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