The Dallas Mavericks lost in gut-wrenching fashion on Monday afternoon in Charlotte on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as the Mavericks simply failed to execute offensively too many times at the end of quarters despite having the game in their hands throughout a decent chunk of this contest. The Mavericks still haven't been able to catch any breaks as far as the injury bug is concerned, as Quentin Grimes, Jaden Hardy, and Dwight Powell all popped up on the injury report and missed this game after Dallas' win over the Oklahoma City Thunder last Friday.
However, this game was the second clutch loss to an opponent with a .282 winning percentage or less in the past week for the Mavericks, and Dallas still had talented enough personnel to get the job done on Monday afternoon as well as in their loss to the New Orleans Pelicans two games ago.
At 23-20, the Mavericks are trending toward being a .500 team heading into the All-Star break if they can't start getting some more wins soon, and the Mavericks could desperately use a boost in their rotation with the trade deadline coming up.
Reports came out recently that the Mavericks may be looking to actively shop Daniel Gafford at this deadline for a wing defender, but NBA insider Marc Stein recently debunked those reports, as Stein believes Dallas would only trade Gafford for an elite wing defender of Herb Jones' caliber or better.
Gafford is too valuable for Mavs to trade unless they land a clear upgrade
Don't get it twisted, Gafford has been slightly less consistent offensively compared to last season with the Mavericks and he's struggled defending in space up until recently. With that being said though, Gafford is proving why Dallas' reported stance of not trading him, unless it's for an insane upgrade, is looking to be the correct stance.
Despite Dallas' loss on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Gafford easily had the best game of his career, as he completely controlled the paint on both sides of the ball en route to a monstrous stat line of 31 points, 15 rebounds, and seven blocks on 12-15 shooting from the field in the game. Gafford worked Mark Williams of the Hornets for most of the game and got the young big in foul trouble early on, and then preceded to swallow up offensive rebounds for put-back attempts while also dominating in the post.
Gafford's 31 points were a career-high and his seven blocks were a season-high, as he's moving his feet well in space and has been quickly covering ground defensively at an insane rate in this recent stretch, perhaps even at a higher level than we have seen from Dereck Lively II at any point this season.
In Dallas' loss to the Pelicans last Wednesday, Gafford had 27 points, 12 rebounds, and two blocks, so it's clear that he's really finding his footing offensively for Dallas this season after challenging himself to add more to his game this past summer. This can be evidenced by plays such as his shimmy into a left hook that he made against Mark Williams in the third quarter of Dallas' loss to Charlotte on Monday, as Gafford is looking as well-rounded offensively as he ever has throughout his entire career recently.
As aforementioned, Dallas shouldn't be looking to trade Gafford by any stretch of the imagination unless they are getting a wing defender on the level of Herb Jones or Jaden McDaniels, as Gafford will be instrumental toward Dallas' playoff success whether he's starting or coming off the bench once Lively II returns from injury.
