RealGM

I figure I'd separate out the player from the discussion of the trade. Nice energy and effect in his Wizards debut:



And his intro press conference:


at 12:53

As a wizard his per 36 numbers are:

33 pts
13 rebounds
8 blocks

I'm glad he's feeling better. That injury looked bad.

If he comes back, I'd limit his time on the court to keep the tank effort going.

FAH1223 wrote:

Read on Twitter

If he is moving this well already, he'll be fine. Maybe another week or so just to be safe.

Yeah definitely good to see him up and around. He's had a good start with the Wizards- boy have we ever been starved for athletic bigs on this team.

Obvious knee jerk comparison is McGee- both guys were 22 in their second year, quick basketball-reference comparison gives Gafford a little bit of an edge. I think we'd all definitely take it if he was the second coming of JaVale- especially a slightly less knuckleheaded one.

Westbrook already is impressed (see Washington Post) by his feel for the game- I'm wondering if anyone ever said that about Epic Vale.

Earth2Ted wrote:Yeah definitely good to see him up and around. He's had a good start with the Wizards- boy have we ever been starved for athletic bigs on this team.

Obvious knee jerk comparison is McGee- both guys were 22 in their second year, quick basketball-reference comparison gives Gafford a little bit of an edge. I think we'd all definitely take it if he was the second coming of JaVale- especially a slightly less knuckleheaded one.

Westbrook already is impressed (see Washington Post) by his feel for the game- I'm wondering if anyone ever said that about Epic Vale.

I mean.........I can't say I do.

He is bigger than I thought. I was expecting him to be pretty skinny but he really isn't

Glad to see him recovering so quickly. He turn that ankle a lot.

I don't see the McGee comparisons. Gafford is 6'10" with a 7"2" wingspan. While that's impressive, tere are a number of guys in the league with his athletic profile and measurements. BK's Claxton has almost identical measurements, for example. Dallas' Dwight Powell has a little less in the wingspan, and a little more strength. While these guys aren't a dime a dozen, they're not outliers, either. We just haven't had one in DC in a while.

in contrast, McGee is a legit 7 footer with a 7'6" wingspan, and ups to boot. He was a Kia sponsorship away from winning a dunk contest. He's a rare bird. We all know that McGee hasn't fully exploited his athletic gifts, but if he had, he'd have been an all-star.

Gafford doesn't have McGee's upside. I'm looking for him to develop into a Dwight Powell-type backup, which would be great return on our trade.

While he doesn't have McGee upside he could end up being on the same level as mcgee over all. Mcgee had all star potential and never got it. But turned into a solid low level starter to a high quality rotation big man.

keynote wrote:I don't see the McGee comparisons. Gafford is 6'10" with a 7"2" wingspan. While that's impressive, tere are a number of guys in the league with his athletic profile and measurements. BK's Claxton has almost identical measurements, for example. Dallas' Dwight Powell has a little less in the wingspan, and a little more strength. While these guys aren't a dime a dozen, they're not outliers, either. We just haven't had one in DC in a while.

in contrast, McGee is a legit 7 footer with a 7'6" wingspan, and ups to boot. He was a Kia sponsorship away from winning a dunk contest. He's a rare bird. We all know that McGee hasn't fully exploited his athletic gifts, but if he had, he'd have been an all-star.

Gafford doesn't have McGee's upside. I'm looking for him to develop into a Dwight Powell-type backup, which would be great return on our trade.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using RealGM mobile app

I think Gafford will def be a rotation level big for a decade assuming health and if he can get a jump shot, he’ll be really solid.

I really liked him in the 2019 draft.

FAH1223 wrote:I think Gafford will def be a rotation level big for a decade assuming health and if he can get a jump shot, he’ll be really solid.

I really liked him in the 2019 draft.

I think he’s a Nerlens Noel/Richaun Holmes type impact backup/rotational C.

Updated per 36 minute numbers in a Wizards uni:

26.8 pts
12.8 rebounds
4.8 blocks

Looks like we traded Brown for DRob.

Kid's a treat, that's for sure!

15/4 in only 18 minutes coming off a sprained ankle.

tontoz wrote:15/4 in only 18 minutes coming off a sprained ankle.

For the year per36:

15.7 points
9.9 rebounds
3.2 blocks
1.1 steals
71% TS

.192 WS/48
2.0 BPM
0.4 VORP

And he’s only 22 years old.

NatP4 wrote:

tontoz wrote:15/4 in only 18 minutes coming off a sprained ankle.

For the year per36:

15.7 points
9.9 rebounds
3.2 blocks
1.1 steals
71% TS

.192 WS/48
2.0 BPM
0.4 VORP

And he’s only 22 years old.

He also ranks 24th in DRPM among centers. 22nd if you ignore Bryant and Kornet, who have barely played.

I think we finally have a young rim-protecting center with real potential. He is in that Tyson Chandler, Robert Williams, Bismack Biyombo, Clint Capela, Mitchell Robinson category of rim runner centers who have the raw potential and show flashes when they're young, but you just can't tell for sure if things will click and they'll finally figure out all of the nuances to team defense.

For Chandler and Capella, it clicked. For Biyombo, not so much. The jury is still out on Williams, Robinson and Gafford.

Does anyone know whether Gafford can switch out onto perimeter players?

We run exclusively drop coverage, which is understandable because we play gigantic slow plodders like Len and Lopez at center, and it's a bit late to change up coverages to try and accommodate Gafford. But I'm curious if anyone has seen Gafford play a more switching system, or at least a hedge-and-recover system. It could give us some different defensive looks.

Don't know the answer to your question Nate, but you brought up Len and Lopez, which prompted for me a Brooks question. Why, if Gafford is playing as well as we have seen, is he still playing 3 centers each game? Who in the modern NBA, would do such a foolish thing on purpose? Having three centers, none of which can shoot outside of 5 ft, each playing 16 min per game, makes absolutely no sense. It's not even like we're protecting the paint, as two of the three don't block or alter shots at the rim.

MDStar wrote:Don't know the answer to your question Nate, but you brought up Len and Lopez, which prompted for me a Brooks question. Why, if Gafford is playing as well as we have seen, is he still playing 3 centers each game? Who in the modern NBA, would do such a foolish thing on purpose? Having three centers, none of which can shoot outside of 5 ft, each playing 16 min per game, makes absolutely no sense. It's not even like we're protecting the paint, as two of the three don't block or alter shots at the rim.

Part of it is probably the minute restriction on Gafford.

The real answer is that Brooks is an idiot. If he views all 3 players at a position as worthy of minutes, he will simply rotate all 3 (see Neto, Ish, and Westbrook). He doesn’t feel the need to do this if there is a young player like Mathews or Bonga in the equation, they are just silly young players that deserve nothing in his eyes.