The Landlord, Go-Go Gadget Gafford. Official Daniel Gafford Thread

[FAH1223]

uppp

Let's rename the thread

"The Landlord, Go-Go Gaff! Official Daniel Gafford Thread"

[doclinkin]

Worth another look:

Watch on YouTube

That's nice.

[dobrojim]

so my comparison to Robert Williams is partially based on the similarity of role they play.

It seems to me that Williams got significantly better this year maybe by fouling less?

Gaff fouling too much I think is perhaps the biggest weakness in his game.
I think his offensive skillset is actually better than Williams.

[payitforward]

so my comparison to Robert Williams is partially based on the similarity of role they play.

It seems to me that Williams got significantly better this year maybe by fouling less?

Gaff fouling too much I think is perhaps the biggest weakness in his game.
I think his offensive skillset is actually better than Williams.

Williams is much better than Gafford at this point in their career. But, he's also 1 year older than Gaff.

Gafford's big problem is that it looks like he can only play @20 minutes per game -- why, I don't know.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Worth another look:

Watch on YouTube

That's nice.

I like DG a lot. He's worth every penny of the the 3 years $40.2M that he signed for at the end of the Westbrook year playoff run, 2020/21. I do not like his utility under new coach WUJ and as a back up to Kristaps Porzingis. I think the SMART PLAY is to SEND THE KID TO THE LAKERS! WHY?? Why not? I would trade Gafford to where he can star and I'd send Beal too in some sort of three-way deal...Makes little sense to pay DG to be a backup. Stunting his growth is dumb.

The Lakers gave up Thomas Bryant for nothing. He's NOW but TYPICAL WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY FANS forget that TB was pretty good offensively before shredding his knee. The Wizards could re-sign TB at the minimum and add a cheap, veteran C; and draft a guy like Treyvion Williams to play a Draymond Green type C.

I like Gafford. A lot. I would free him up.

[dobrojim]

Who knows what Bryant might do with more time to rehab but his strength, his offensive game,
wasn't that good this year compared to his pre-injury performance. Vet minimum if mgmt can
convince themselves that the light has come on defensively.

[nate33]

Who knows what Bryant might do with more time to rehab but his strength, his offensive game,
wasn't that good this year compared to his pre-injury performance. Vet minimum if mgmt can
convince themselves that the light has come on defensively.

If he only costs the vet minimum, then I'm sure Sheppard will keep him. My guess is he costs quite a bit more, probably Taxpayer MLE type money ($5M-ish). At that price, I'm not sure we will keep him since we already have 3 centers under contract. I suppose we could try and move Vernon Carey Jr. to free up a roster spot.

[BearlyBallin]

Watch on YouTube

Taj Gibson giving him advise, “… he say I need to set the screen harder? I’m gonna set it harder”

Impact on offense, “Jump shot… yeah, I’m going to start to shoot them. I’m more comfortable where I am now.”

His focus, “…Being a defensive anchor.”

I can’t wait to see him with Morris and hopefully, some improved perimeter shooters to spread the floor. If he can just stay out of foul trouble.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Watch on YouTube

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

He's a leader.

Real wise.

Sent from my SM-A536U using RealGM mobile app

[BearlyBallin]

Read on Twitter

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This made me jump out of my seat. So glad Wes challenged it, have we ever won a challenge before this one ?

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

[dobrojim]

11 points on 3 FGAs. Nice.

He obviously had a major impact last night.

[DCZards]

Read on Twitter

Nice! This is how you celebrate a win…by giving props and showing love to a worthy teammate.

[payitforward]

(moved here...)

...Gafford is playing like a replacement level player this year....

I don't think any of this is Gafford's fault. First of all, Wes is playing him 4 or 6 minutes a night. Kind of hard to ask a player to produce when he's not even able to break a sweat out there.
Gafford needs to be a lob threat to be effective on offense. That worked when Russ was setting him up but Monte is not doing that at all this year.

Well, he was playing 15 minutes a night, which is what should be expected for a backup center. It wasn't until the last 3 games that Wes got frustrated with him and sat him the 2nd half.

You make a good point about the team not utilizing him as a lob threat. I wouldn't really blame Morris though, because Gafford rarely shares the court with Morris... As I (and others) have argued for a while now, it makes much more sense chemistry-wise to bring Morris off the bench....

Anyhow, even if Gafford ran with a better PG, I'm no longer as optimistic about his future. His production has basically stagnated since Westbrook left. And I'm not just talking about scoring frequency. His rebounds are down, fouls are up, and his turnovers are way up (mostly from offensive fouls on screens). That's not the PG's fault.

There is no doubt that Gafford was at his best -- a complete revelation! -- in the last part of the '20-21 season. I.e. with Westbrook.

That said, he was still extremely good last year. There are 2 problems this year, however:

1. His usage has dropped.
As pointed out, he's not being utilized as much as a lob threat. When he has a chance he's scoring the ball as effectively as ever. In fact, his TS% is at a career high -- & it's kind of amazing! -- .726.

With Russ running the show, Gaff got 12.2 FGAs & 5.9 FTAs per 36 minutes.
Last year that was down to 10.2 & 3.8.
This year it's dropped to 7.6 & 5.0.

What made his '20-21 partial season with us different from last year & this, in other words, was not his ability to score the ball. It was the opportunities he had to score the ball! & for sure that was Russ!

But there's one other problem:

2. His turnovers have almost doubled.
First year with us, Gaff got 4.4 offensive boards per 36 minutes as against 1.7 turnovers. That's 2.7 possessions gained for the team.
Last year it was 3.9 & 1.6 -- 2.3 possessions gained.
This year, it's 3.4 offensive boards & 3.1 turnovers. Only .3 gained possessions.

In fact, however, even with all these declines, Daniel Gafford overall is still putting up well above average numbers for a Center.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Three straight games in double figures and shooting a career high 73.5% from the field. Only downside is his free throw percentage is the worst since his rookie year.

[nate33]

Three straight games in double figures and shooting a career high 73.5% from the field. Only downside is his free throw percentage is the worst since his rookie year.

The biggest downside has been his turnover rate. He is really struggling with the moving screen rules. His turnovers are up 33% from the last two seasons, despite a drop in usage.

The good news is he is back to rebounding at career best levels. Last year, his rebounding took a bit of a dive, particularly on the defensive glass. This year, he is posting his career best TRB%, and only barely off his career best DRB%

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

At this point I wouldn’t mind seeing Porzingis miss 3 straight games. The Wizards are going to lose, regardless.

Gafford needs to play more minutes.

[FAH1223]

Playing Gafford with Porzingis is good.

Playing him with Gibson is good in that he also isn't thinking much but the spacing suffers cause even though Taj can hit from deep, no one respects it.

I'm more encouraged by Gaff over the last couple weeks as he was struggling to open the season.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Three straight games in double figures and shooting a career high 73.5% from the field. Only downside is his free throw percentage is the worst since his rookie year.

The biggest downside has been his turnover rate. He is really struggling with the moving screen rules. His turnovers are up 33% from the last two seasons, despite a drop in usage.

The good news is he is back to rebounding at career best levels. Last year, his rebounding took a bit of a dive, particularly on the defensive glass. This year, he is posting his career best TRB%, and only barely off his career best DRB%

Yeah TOs have been noticeable. Gets stripped whenever he puts that ball low.