The Dallas Mavericks’ post-Luka Doncic era has quickly gone from bad to worse.
Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Thursday that Mavericks big man Daniel Gafford has been diagnosed with a Grade 3 sprain of the MCL in his right knee. As a result, Gafford is expected to miss the next six weeks, Charania adds.
The 26-year-old Gafford was injured during Dallas’ overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings on Monday. He was setting a screen when he got hit directly on the knee by Kings guard Malik Monk (video here).
Gafford was a hero for the Mavericks after being acquired at last season’s trade deadline from the Washington Wizards. He started at center during Dallas’ Finals run and made a number of massive plays down the stretch of the postseason.
This season for the Mavericks, Gafford had been averaging 12.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game on a superb 69.9 percent shooting from the field (primarily as a lob and clean-up threat). But with the news that Gafford is now out for six weeks, that means we may not see him again until the end of March (at which point there will only be a couple of weeks left in the regular season).
That really hurts for a Dallas team that has been absolutely shredded apart by injuries, particularly to their frontcourt. Anthony Davis, who arrived in the Doncic trade, recently suffered a long-term injury, and fellow bigs Dereck Lively II and Dwight Powell are in the midst of extended injury absences of their own. With Gafford now joining all of those guys on the shelf, the Mavericks will have to make due for the next month-plus without a true center (as 6-foot-8 Olivier Maxence-Prosper steps in for them as a small-ball starting 5).
