As Dallas keeps reshaping the roster around Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg, two familiar names keep popping up in trade chatter: P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford.
That makes sense on paper. The Mavericks have added more shooting this offseason, but they’ve also packed the frontcourt after drafting Morez Johnson Jr. 9th overall, trading for Santi Aldama and Zaccharie Risacher, and matching the offer sheet Moussa Cisse signed with the New York Knicks. With Flagg still not an elite shooter, the roster math starts to point toward moving some non-shooters and opening up room inside.
Washington and Gafford fit that conversation because they’re productive players, but also because there’s only so much floor time to go around. They’re two of the four highest-paid players on the roster, and outside of Kyrie Irving, they may also be the veterans with the most trade value.
NBA insider Marc Stein has said multiple times this offseason that Dallas is open to moving those veterans, which is exactly why Los Angeles Lakers fans have been pushing Rob Pelinka to get involved again. But according to Jake Fischer, the Lakers haven’t actually had meaningful talks on either player.
"I know Lakers fans want to keep drawing the line to a trade with Dallas for either P.J. Washington or Daniel Gafford because of their success with Luka Doncic. I really don't have any inclination that the Lakers had trade talks with either of those guys of real consequence this offseason," Fischer said on a Bleacher Report stream recently.
Even if the Lakers wanted to make that swing, the mechanics look rough. They already sent two unprotected first-round picks and two more pick swaps to the Utah Jazz in the Walker Kessler sign-and-trade, which leaves them short on draft capital. And on the salary side, their only two tradeable players this offseason making more than $10 million are Luka Doncic and Jarred Vanderbilt.
Doncic isn’t going anywhere, and Vanderbilt isn’t exactly the kind of asset that opens doors around the league.
That means the Lakers would have to piece together salaries just to reach Gafford’s number, while Dallas is in a position where it would make more sense to simplify its books, not add more pieces.
So if Washington or Gafford does get moved, it likely happens somewhere other than Los Angeles.
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For a team that has been working with limited assets, landing a former No. 1 pick like Risacher looked like the kind of swing that requires both conviction and creativity. Masai Ujiri and Mike Schmitz helped steer the process, and Oklahoma Citys role was essential in giving Dallas a path Atlanta would accept, even as the Mavericks continue to operate with a thin stash of picks and the possibility that more roster pieces may eventually be needed to restock it. [Read more 🡒]