Daniel Gafford is proving Mavericks' trade with Wizards was highway robbery

The Dallas Mavericks took care of business handily against the Washington Wizards on Thursday evening, as the Mavericks built their advantage continuously throughout the game after grasping the lead at the 8:54 minute mark of the first quarter, securing a 137-101 blowout victory. The Wizards' 2-18 record was extremely evident throughout this contest, as they suffered immensely from a shot creation aspect and were destroyed by a 58-39 margin on the glass by the Mavericks.

However, the Mavericks didn't falter because of Washington's poor play and kept their foot on the pedal all night long en route to being able to rest their starters throughout most of the fourth quarter. Dallas had eight players in double figures in this contest, which is idealistic in a game like this where the ball should be spread abundantly, and it also continues to highlight Dallas' increasingly strong depth.

One of Dallas' role players who was in double figures and had a massive impact in this contest was none other than Daniel Gafford, as the 6-foot-10 big man made a statement against his former team, scoring 16 points while also grabbing seven rebounds and two blocks in only 19 minutes.

Gafford is showing why the Mavs fleeced the Wizards

Gafford getting traded from Washington to Dallas at last season's trade deadline is a move that has paid extreme dividends for the Mavericks as we all know, so perhaps it's time we further analyze just how dramatically the Mavericks won this trade.

Dallas traded Gafford in exchange for Richaun Holmes and a 2024 first-round pick that they gained through a pick swap with the Oklahoma City Thunder. That ended up becoming the 26th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft for the Wizards, who selected Dillon Jones with that pick until they traded him to the Thunder in exchange for fellow rookie Kyshawn George.

George didn't play in Dallas' recent blowout victory over Washington, but he's shown some promise in the infancy stages of his career. George is a versatile defending forward who needs to polish up some aspects of his offensive game to blossom in this league, but his efficiency shooting the ball has been terrible this season, and he isn't much of a known commodity at this point in his career.

While George hasn't moved the needle much in his first year in the league so far, former Mavs' center Richaun Holmes has been even worse for the Wizards this season, as the big man has only played a combined 21 minutes in three separate games throughout the entire season thus far. Holmes didn't even play at the tail end of Dallas' blowout victory on Thursday evening, as his career has taken a turn for the worse in the matter of a couple of seasons.

Meanwhile, Gafford has thrived in Dallas since he stepped foot in the door, and the 26-year-old center is averaging a career-high 12.6 points per game while coming off the bench this season for the Mavericks. There can't be enough said about how valuable Dallas' rim-running and shot-blocking tandem of Dereck Lively II and Gafford have been for 48 minutes in nearly every game this season, and Gafford is quietly cementing himself as one of the best backup centers in the entire NBA.

Gafford has been a menace on both ends this season just like he was for Dallas in the playoffs last season, anchoring the paint defensively as one of the better rim protectors in the league while also possessing the ability to punish defenders in the post and off offensive rebounds. With that being said, the Mavericks clearly won the Gafford trade with flying colors, as Washington's only chance to recoup any sort of positive value in this trade is if George turns into a high-level role player one day.