The Fantasy Basketball Encyclopedia

Player Dossier · Dallas Mavericks

Daniel Gafford

Daniel Gafford is Dallas's safest opening center while Lively cannot run, preserving late-round value through elite FG%, rebounds, and blocks.

2026-27 projection

GP MPG FG% (FGA) FT% (FTA) 3PM PTS REB AST STL BLK TO
68 24 .660 (6.4) .690 (2.7) 0.0 10.5 7.2 1.2 0.8 1.5 1.2

Gafford's 2025-26 line was 9.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.3 blocks in 21.7 minutes across 55 games, with 65.5% FG and 68.3% FT.

Fantasy translation

Role, floor, ceiling, uncertainty

Sources

Career record

Pre-NBA: Arkansas, two seasons (2017-18 and 2018-19). 11.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks in 22.6 minutes on .605 shooting and .528 from the line as a freshman; 16.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks in 28.7 minutes on .660 and .591 as a sophomore. Made the SEC All-Freshman team in 2018, then first-team All-SEC and the SEC All-Defensive team in 2019. The free-throw problem that has followed him through the NBA was already the defining flaw of his college profile. Draft: 2019, second round, 38th pick, Chicago Bulls.

Season Age Team GP MPG PTS REB AST STL BLK 3PM FG% FT% TO
2019-20 21 CHI 43 14.2 5.1 2.5 0.5 0.3 1.3 0.0 .701 .533 0.7
2020-21 22 CHI 31 12.4 4.7 3.3 0.5 0.4 1.1 0.0 .690 .659 0.7
2020-21 22 WSH 23 17.7 10.1 5.6 0.5 0.7 1.8 0.0 .681 .672 0.8
2021-22 23 WSH 72 20.1 9.4 5.7 0.9 0.4 1.4 0.0 .693 .699 0.9
2022-23 24 WSH 78 20.6 9.0 5.6 1.1 0.4 1.3 0.0 .732 .679 1.1
2023-24 25 WSH 45 26.5 10.9 8.0 1.5 1.0 2.2 0.0 .690 .706 1.0
2023-24 25 DAL 29 21.5 11.2 6.9 1.6 0.7 1.9 0.0 .780 .607 1.0
2024-25 26 DAL 57 21.5 12.3 6.8 1.4 0.4 1.8 0.0 .702 .689 1.2
2025-26 27 DAL 55 21.7 9.5 6.9 1.1 0.8 1.3 0.0 .655 .683 1.1
Career 433 20.1 9.3 5.8 1.1 0.5 1.5 0.0 .702 .674 1.0

Two seasons split across teams. He was traded from Chicago to Washington on March 25, 2021 in a three-team deal, and from Washington to Dallas on February 8, 2024 for Richaun Holmes and draft compensation. He signed a three-year, $40.2 million extension with Washington in October 2021 and a three-year, $54 million extension with Dallas in July 2025.

Fantasy history: Season-end nine-category finishes from Basketball Monster or Hashtag were not verifiable in this research pass, and no rank is estimated here. The shape is unambiguous and more useful than a rank would be: he is a two-category anchor with a built-in tax. Field-goal percentage has been .655 or better in all seven seasons and .702 for his career on genuinely meaningful volume, which is among the most valuable single-category contributions in the format, and blocks have sat between 1.1 and 2.2 every year. Free-throw percentage has never reached .710 and sits at .674 career, so he is close to unrosterable in standard nine-cat builds that are not punting free throws, and close to a cornerstone in builds that are. He has never made a three-pointer in an NBA regular season, which is a hard zero in a category rather than a weakness. Points leagues treat him better than categories do in absolute terms, because the free-throw drag disappears and the rebounds and blocks still count, but the modest minutes cap him as a streamer-plus rather than a starter there.

Durability: 43, 54, 72, 78, 74, 57, 55. The middle of the career was reliable; the last two years were not, and the causes are distinct rather than a single chronic issue. In 2024-25 he suffered a Grade 3 MCL sprain of the right knee in the second quarter against Sacramento on February 10, 2025 after a collision with Malik Monk, was ruled out at least six weeks, and did not play again that season. In 2025-26 he rolled his right ankle on the first day of preseason practice, was given a two-to-three week timeline by Jason Kidd, and then re-aggravated it repeatedly through the year in a play-a-few, miss-a-few cycle; he also exited a game against Golden State with a shoulder problem and missed Dallas's final four games with it. Note that the early-career games-played numbers understate his availability, since 2019-20 and 2020-21 were shortened seasons and his rookie-year role was small by choice rather than injury.

Trajectory: The arc peaked in 2023-24 and 2024-25 and turned down last season, and the per-36 numbers say the decline was real rather than a minutes artifact. His minutes were essentially identical in 2024-25 and 2025-26, 21.5 against 21.7, but his scoring fell from 20.6 per 36 to 15.8 and his blocks from 3.0 per 36 to 2.2, while his rebounding held flat at 11.4. Field-goal percentage dropped to .655, a career low by nearly forty points, which for a player whose entire offensive game is dunks and putbacks means the lob volume and the quality of the feeds both fell — the Doncic trade removed the passer who made him a .702 finisher, and neither Irving's availability nor the 2025-26 guard rotation replaced it. The one genuine gain was steals, up from 0.4 to 0.8, which is a small offset. He turns 28 in October, which is neutral for a rim-running big but not helpful given that the athleticism is the entire skill, and the knee and ankle history now runs two seasons deep. For 2026-27 the projection should lean on the categories that survived — rebounds and field-goal percentage — and treat both the blocks and the scoring as needing a role restoration rather than a bounce-back to be recovered; Lively's foot is the variable that decides which way that goes.

Career sources: ESPN career stats · Wikipedia — Daniel Gafford · NBA.com — 2024-25 knee sprain · ESPN — Grade 3 MCL sprain, out six weeks · ESPN — 2025-26 preseason ankle sprain

Open questions