Lakers' Offseason Drama: Gafford Trade Possibilities
The Lakers’ offseason circus added another twist this week, and this one cut a little closer to the bone.
A name Lakers fans are exhausted hearing about walked out of their orbit for good, signing a two-year deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves and slamming the door on a saga that has hovered over the franchise all summer. For a team that has already weathered a second ownership change in 14 months, it felt like one more jolt in a stretch that hasn’t stopped moving.
The problem isn’t just perception. It’s depth.
Los Angeles finally landed its white whale at center, prying Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz in a sign-and-trade to pair the 7-foot-2, 245-pound rim protector with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. As Khobi Price wrote for the California Post, the move ended a multiyear chase and, on paper, gave Doncic the kind of vertical, defensive big he’s historically elevated.
But Kessler played only five games last season. That’s the catch. And it’s a big one.
So the question lurking behind all the celebration is simple: who protects the paint when Kessler can’t?
The Market Is Bare, So the Trade Machine Starts Humming
The free-agent center market is picked clean. The Lakers don’t need another star behind Kessler, but they do need someone who can soak up real minutes if injuries resurface. A placeholder won’t cut it.
That’s where Daniel Gafford’s name keeps circling back.
The Dallas Mavericks big man has been tied to the Lakers almost from the moment his friend Doncic was shipped to Los Angeles 19 months ago. His profile fits the need: athletic, productive, and already proven next to Doncic on the biggest stage.
According to NBA insider Brett Siegel, Dallas quietly shopped Gafford while exploring sign-and-trade possibilities for Klay Thompson, who ultimately chose the Miami Heat in free agency.
“(The Mavs) believed that they could get something (in a trade for Thompson),” Siegel reported this week. “… There was nothing there. They were talking with teams about Daniel Gafford, about potentially trading him. Again, nothing really ever happened there.”
Nothing yet, anyway.
Gafford’s Fit Is Obvious. The Path to Getting Him Isn’t.
From the Lakers’ perspective, Dallas being open to moving Gafford is about as encouraging a sign as they could hope for. Gafford, a 2019 first-round pick, broke out alongside Doncic during the Mavericks’ run to the 2024 NBA Finals.
In that 2023-24 season, he averaged 11.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game as Dallas’ starting center. He finished plays, ran the floor, and protected the rim. For Los Angeles, he checks two crucial boxes: he gives them another legitimate big, and he comes pre-packaged with chemistry next to their new franchise cornerstone.
That’s the basketball case. The financial and asset case is far messier.
Gafford is due roughly $17 million next season. To make the math work, the Lakers would almost certainly have to move a piece like Jarred Vanderbilt, who is owed about $12 million. That’s before you even get to Dallas’ reported demand for a first-round pick.
And that’s where the Lakers hit a wall.
Price laid out the reality bluntly: after the Kessler deal, Los Angeles’ asset pool is shallow.
“Without (Jonathan) Kuminga, the answer to who’ll be their fifth starter is likely already on the team. Every other starting-caliber or pseudo starting-caliber wing/forward free agent for a team looking to contend in the playoffs has already been signed. Those types of players aren’t easy to trade for, and the Lakers lack the draft capital to credibly make a deal,” he wrote.
The same logic applies to Gafford. If Dallas digs in on a first-round pick, the Lakers simply don’t have the ammunition.
But what if the market doesn’t materialize?
Waiting on Dallas’ Resolve
Right now, Gafford sits in a strange middle ground. Valuable, but not untouchable. Productive, but playing on a team that has already shown it’s willing to listen on him.
If the phones stay quiet in Dallas, that asking price might soften. Maybe the Mavericks decide they’d rather rebalance the roster, trim future salary, or pivot into flexibility. Maybe a package built around a contract like Vanderbilt’s, smaller assets and creative protections starts to sound more reasonable.
For the Lakers, that’s the opening they have to hope for.
They’ve landed their starting center. They’ve hit on their biggest need. But with Kessler’s recent injury history and a thin frontcourt behind him, one more misstep or one more bad break could leave a contender exposed in the most unforgiving area of the floor.
So the offseason rolls on, wild as ever in Los Angeles, with one question hanging over the front office:
Can they turn a sliver of opportunity in Dallas into the safety net this roster desperately needs?
