Mavericks' brilliant Daniel Gafford trade just keeps getting better

Even deep into the offseason, the Dallas Mavericks are continuing to gain subtle victories with some of their past trades made, though that obviously can't be said for Nico Harrison's disastrous Luka Doncic trade.

One piece of business Dallas nailed this offseason was signing Daniel Gafford to a three-year $54 million contract extension, and while this deal was already a great value proposition for Dallas, it further shifted the optics of Dallas' Gafford-Richaun Holmes trade even further, as Gafford nailed down his immediate future in Dallas while Holmes remained on the open market deep into free agency.

Now, at the beginning of August, it was recently reported Holmes would be signing with Greek squad Panathinaikos, as he'll be one of the highest-paid players for one of the top squads in the Euroleague next season. From Holmes and his agent's perspective, this was a great way to extend his playing career, but this is also an absolute win for Dallas and their bet against Holmes by trading him for Gafford.

Holmes going overseas seals the deal on Dallas' huge win in Gafford trade

The Mavericks also gave up a first round pick in 2024 NBA Draft in that deal to the Washington Wizards, which ended up eventually being conveyed to the Oklahoma City Thunder, as they selected Dillon Jones with that pick (who is now with the Wizards ironically), so in a roundabout way Dallas basically traded Holmes and Jones for Gafford.

Jones is a promising, bigger-bodied guard who accrued great experience playing on a championship team in OKC last season, and while he could blossom into a solid role player in Washington one day, by no means has he flashed All-Star potential or anything of the sort. So, for the time being, it's fair to assume the Mavericks completely swept the table on the Gafford trade, as they basically gave away a fringe developmental role player and an undersized big who's out of the league now, to attain Gafford's services.

Gafford has been a monster in Dallas thus far, playing some of the best basketball of his career in the beginning of his presumptive prime, and he's improved his finishing and touch around the rim to elite levels while in Dallas. Perhaps the optics of this trade could be revisited in a few months if Dallas elects to trade Gafford for more backcourt help at any point this season, but Dallas seems to be fully committed to big-ball, and Gafford is a quintessential part of that equation, especially given Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II's injury history.

If Dallas can inflict their rim presence and physicality on opposing teams at an elite level next season and does better than anyone expects, than the Gafford trade will be even more of a massive win at this point, but Dallas will come out on top of this trade regardless unless they trade Gafford for pennies on the dollar, as Holmes falling out of the league was the final straw in the Wizards' hopes to salvage any sort of short-term positive value on the Gafford swap.