Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Why Daniel Gafford's Contract Extension In Dallas Could Be Good for the Lakers
Episode Date: June 24, 2025Mavericks center Daniel Gafford signed an extension with Dallas on Monday afternoon. Initially, reporting had the contract worth about $60 million over three years, which because of the totally arcane... CBA rules would have made Gafford ineligible to be traded for six months. Bad for the Lakers, because it pulls a realistic center target off the market, and raises the price for everyone else. Then, more news. Turns out that deal is worth about $54 million over three years. And the difference means that Gafford doesn't have any trade protection and can be moved anytime. While this could raise the price for Gafford a little (the risk of losing him as a free agent next summer would mitigate his value, just as it does Austin Reaves for the Lakers) it also makes him a more appealing target. Were the Lakers to swing a deal, they'd have cost certainty for a 26-year old with some marketable skills, at a position of incredible need. Moreover, it helps keep the price for a player like Brooklyn's Nic Claxton a little lower, because the Nets don't totally have the market cornered. And what about Deandre Ayton? Would Portland move him... and would he be worth a flier for the Lakers? (It wouldn't come cheap.) Meanwhile, LeBron James is back on the floor working out - a good sign for next year - and Alex Caruso is telling the haters to eff off. HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: Daniel Gafford signs an extension. Good deal for LA? SEGMENT 2: Gafford or Claxton (or Ayton)? SEGMENT 3: Caruso has another ring, LeBron is working out. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!OLIPOPGet a free can of OLIPOP! Just buy any two cans in store and they’ll reimburse you for one. Head to drinkolipop.com/LOCKEDONNBA to claim your free can and find OLIPOP near you. SKIMSShop SKIMS Mens at SKIMS.com/lockedonnba. Let them know we sent you! After you place your order, select "podcast" in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows. OpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonnbaWayFairGive your home the refresh it needs with Wayfair. Head to Wayfair.com right now. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first yearGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hey, everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Tuesday.
Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kemeneski, some big action in the free agent center market.
Is it actually good news for the Lakers this time? That's next.
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all of whom are impressed with what can only be considered the world's fastest entry into the Department of Corrections and Retractions
in the history of the Locked on Lakers podcast as within the first four seconds of the show.
I believe I made a mistake describing Daniel Gaffert as a free agent center.
He was merely a center who is extension.
eligible who could have become a free agent and is not anymore because the Dallas Maverick signed
him to an extension. So clearing that one up and we'll get to what this means for the Lakers in a
second. I was actually wondering who you were talking about. It was like we did a rundown. We got a
headline for the show. I was very prepared to talk about Daniel Gafford who was potentially
entering a walk year. But maybe there was a free agent center that, you know, like Clint Capella
went on record and said, I will go to the Lakers for the taxpayer mid-level exception.
Nobody else need call, including the Atlanta Hawks.
You can triple my pay.
I don't care.
Yeah, nope.
It wasn't that.
It was just a misstatement.
And for those people who are catching the audio, whether or not.
As did Miles Turner, the Lakers all of a sudden, now a big-ass bidding war going on.
And they didn't even do anything.
But if you're watching on, if you're listening on the audio.
a version, whether through Spotify or Apple Podcasts or whatever, couldn't do it again because
we are doing the show live on YouTube on Monday night.
Like Bill O'Reilly back in the day.
Yeah, we're just, you know, you've got to live with your mistakes there, Andy.
And we're just as composed as Bill was on that day.
So do want to let people know that today's episode is brought to by Fandle.
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when Brian would make his first mistake in tonight's show.
So the news, it was really kind of a fascinating thing.
We got a few things to cover, including LeBron James working out,
some action heating up ahead of the draft in terms of player movement.
A lot of things are going on.
And even what I define as a crazy bit of gambling that you could throw out there if you want.
But the Gafford news is obviously.
is the biggest thing for the Lakers. When it first broke, Shams Sharani at ESPN described it as a
three-year $60 million extension. That would have had completely different implications,
had those actually been the contract terms. It turns out it was a three-year deal worth about
$54 million. And because of that, the difference in that, you know, six-ish million dollars,
is the difference between Gafford being ineligible to be traded for six months and eligible to be traded at any time.
So obviously it is a big difference for Gafford to be off the market versus on.
And Gafford on the market not only keeps a player live in terms of the Lakers just can't afford for potential targets to disappear.
But it also potentially makes a trade more predictable and easier to justify.
Yeah, this from Yossi Goslin, if you're not following him, great cap guy.
If you want to have a better understanding of how a lot of this stuff works, he, along with people like Keith Smith and Eric Pinkis, they're really good at breaking this stuff down.
But Yossi tweeted out, this is the maximum amount Daniel Gaffer can extend for the extent.
extend and trade limits, he can get a 120% raise off his $14.4 million salary in 2026,
which starts him at 17.3 million in 2627. Then with 5% raises, it tops out at 54.3 million,
which sounds like down to the... A little 5% bump, a little cost of living something for you,
Daniel Gafford. Well, it really is down to the penny. This is the maximum
that we can give you in an extension, but also keep you trade eligible, which it was interesting.
With his news broke, I immediately tweeted out at Cambrothers because at the time with Shams's
original tweet, it sounded like Daniel Gafford wouldn't be eligible for a trade anywhere from,
I don't know, three, six months. These things can be.
Six months. Okay, six months. Sometimes these rules can be continued on what time.
It would have been ineligible for six months, so right around the deadline.
Right.
So my original thought was this is great news for the Brooklyn Nets if they are looking to create
a Nick Claxton sweepstakes because Daniel Gafford would have been one center rumored to be
potentially getable slash on the move, who for the time being is staying put.
Once I saw this update from Yassi Goslin, my next immediate.
thought was like instantly this is to me Dallas signaling we want to trade Daniel Gafford
we want to make Daniel Gafford easier to trade that's the thing I think that's it I think I think
the easier to trade part of it I don't think it means they automatically have to they automatically
feel like they they clearly they clearly want the ability to do that's the big thing that's when when he is now
extended, there's no uncertainty about him being in a walk year. There's no uncertainty. I've talked
about this with the Lakers specifically of Gafford having huge leverage over the Lakers or any other
team that traded for him because of everything you gave up to get him, presumably that would
put more of an onus on keeping him and therefore Gafford could extract more money in his
contract. The terms are now set through 2029. You know exactly what Daniel Gafford's going to cost you.
And while we've talked about before, I am not totally sold on Daniel Gafford as an everyday starting center.
The terms for his deal are not in any way scary.
Like this is not a contract that would frighten you to take on, even if there's some things that you're feeling out about Gafford.
Like I would still prefer Claxton all things being equal, but this makes Gafford much more in play.
And at least from my perspective in terms of things I was concerned about, much more potentially enticing.
Well, you have to mean, obviously you have to look at with every transaction.
It's the player and also the finances, how this impacts what your books look like.
And there's there's no question.
Like you don't want to end up in a situation where you feel like you have to pay
Gaff for like $30 million.
So like you just, you know, you let assets walk out the door or whatever it might be.
And, you know, I do think some people might, you know, basketball numbers are hard to wrap
your head around sometimes in terms of what the salaries are.
You're basically talking about 18 million a year for Gafford.
That is about what a player of that caliber costs.
You know, you might be able to sneak a guy in for a little bit less than that.
You might be able to sneak a guy in for a little bit more.
But, you know, what's interesting, too, is that the center a couple years ago,
three, four years ago, Center was sort of a devalued position.
And, you know, somebody like Gafford might make 15, you know, sort of like running backs in the
NFL for a long time.
It's just people to stop spending money on them.
And centers, other than the most elite ones, it was kind of the same thing.
Well, now the pendulum is swinging back the other way.
Everybody's trying to add size.
Everybody's.
And so like even a team like Dallas, you talk about they want the ability to trade Gafford.
He is much, I agree with you, more tradable on a reasonable three-year deal than he is as an expiring contract, particularly to, you know, teams that are contending and don't necessarily have a lot of assets.
They have now, this is actually a good piece of work by Nico Harrison.
You know, they've got too many forwards with way too many forwards.
AD and PJ Washington and Gafford and Lively and Cooper flags on the way.
Like, just kind of allow people on the roster.
They might have to release him, which is another one of these sort of the Lakers kind of looking around.
We talked about Jock Landale yesterday with the, or I should say, Monday,
Monday, yeah, Monday show yesterday as just sort of like these names that could end up on the minimum salary market.
it because of these machinations that happen.
But now Dallas can sort of pick and choose who they get the best offer from, which one
makes the most sense, where they can get the back court help that they need and all that.
And when we come back, Andy, we can talk about perhaps what a trade might look like.
And I will throw out something that I saw that made me giggle when we get back as well.
But first, I do want to tell people that today's episode is brought to you by Monarch
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So we'll get back to what I would consider
to be more realistic trade scenarios here in a moment.
but the folks over at Bovada, one of the sports books, in the wake of the heat not getting Kevin Durant, put up the odds of favorites to trade for Bam out of bio, as long as we're talking about centers.
The Lakers, of course, as they do in almost every one of these lists land at the top.
do you think we talked about like do the lakers have the proverbial offer you can't refuse
do you think the lakers have enough to make an offer that miami would accept for adabio
i mean i got to go look at their books right now and figure out like do they have enough
setting aside money and like no but it matters because like you have to stack up enough
contracts to right but i'm just saying do you do you think the lakers have enough appealing players
Like the players that would be, let's just say the money you can make work in a way that doesn't crush Miami, like they have to take on terrible contracts.
Do the Lakers have enough positive assets to get a player of that caliber?
I would think no, just because like if they weren't willing to throw some of the reportedly guys like Jaime Hakez Jr. and Hayward Highsmiths.
and whatever for like Kevin Durant.
I don't picture like reverse engineering this.
So somehow Austin Reeves and Rui Hachamura and like Dahlton Connect and a first gets
you ban.
But again, like the the salary numbers really do matter.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
No, that would the salary numbers would just make it harder.
I'm just, I mean, like, I'm just going to cut to the case on this.
on the idea of whether or not the Lakers even have enough for them to be like,
okay, we do like those pieces.
Let's see if we can make the money work.
I don't think they do.
I'm just going to cut to the chase.
Vegas lines, gambling lines, they always put the Lakers at the top of everything
because the Lakers have one of the biggest fan bases and they want to entice gambling.
And they, if they're hoping that either a lot of casuals who just assume the Lakers get
everybody or the Laker fan base, which is so huge. Either way, the reaction will be
let's F and go and they put down some money. Like that's, that's what this is.
100%. I'm just cutting, I'm just cutting to the chase so we don't get into the weeds on a stupid
conversation. Yeah, but just I that the point of it, the question was just like, could they
even put something like that together? Yeah. Do they really like Austin Reeves a first?
That's really that's, I mean, that's it does. I mean, those are the best players the Lakers can offer.
unless, I guess, unless Miami thinks they've really missed Gabe Vincent's magic, like, you know,
again, this is a stupid conversation.
Well, and I apologize for bringing it up.
I think, you know, the question becomes, is Dallas able now to get more?
The line had always been with Gafford, the, the nets would be in a better position because you can get more for.
Nick Claxton both because I think he's better, but also he has a contract that is very team friendly.
It's not an onerous number.
It actually gets smaller.
It declines as a point.
So 25 this coming season a year roughly to 23, roughly to 21, roughly in 2028.
Right.
So not a little bit more than Gafford, but not crazy more than Gafford.
And, you know, again, I think Claxton is, if that, I don't know, somebody can do the math for me.
is that like he's 15% better than 20% better than than Gafford.
So you're not paying something crazy for that.
I think this raise,
this equals out,
I think to some degree what Dallas is going to be able to do here with Gafford
because it mitigates at the very least,
it mitigates that contract question.
And so where Gafford,
the advantage for the Lakers for Gafford,
not being on this contract is it probably doesn't cost as much to get it.
The advantage for the Lakers is if they want to get Gafford,
they can do it with much more predictability and security,
which I think is worth it.
But, you know, that's the tradeoff.
I think if you're the Lakers exploring a deal.
Well, there's more of it too as well.
Like let's say they're more interested in Nick Claxton,
like you and I both happen to be.
For what it's worth, I did my ESPN, L.A.
7-10 weekly Lakers show, Lakers talk, and I had Mo DeKiel on.
He's a former video coordinator for the Spurs and the Clippers, covers the NBA for Bleacher
Report.
And I asked him who he would prefer for the Lakers if he could choose.
And he said Claxton.
He just thinks Gafford might be the easier fit immediately, just because he and Luca
had played together before, but he thinks Claxton's a better player.
But the good news now is, let's just say the Lakers do prefer Claxton.
they can use the fact that Gafford is available to leverage in these negotiations with the nets.
Whereas before, if teams could figure out, yeah, you'd be pretty skittish about trading for Gafford knowing he's going to have you over a barrel in these negotiations.
We can start really playing hardball because you're not necessarily as sold on the idea of making that trade for Gafford.
If Gafford is getable now for the Lakers,
and I don't mean just getable in terms of what the Lakers would offer.
I mean getable in the sense that it feels like there's less uncertainty in acquiring him moving forward.
I think that's really good for the Lakers, as I presume, because everyone else does,
they're going to negotiate with the Nets about Nick Claxton.
Do you, a couple of people in the chat have mentioned D'Andre Aiton,
and I bring him up because the Blazers are doing stuff.
They acquired or reacquired Drew, Drew Holiday from Boston exchange for Anthony Simons
and two second rounders, I believe, were the terms there.
Yep.
So there are bringing in this sort of veteran help trying to teach the young players how to win.
Aiton is a guy whose image has taken a massive hit.
over the last couple of seasons,
but wasn't terrible in Portland last year.
Didn't play a ton, which is always a problem
with DeAndre Aiton.
I am, I am Aitin skeptical.
He, I believe is entering the last year of a deal.
He is.
And I just don't-
35-mill, I believe.
Don't trust a guy like that to,
both hold up, but also make a leap to play, you know,
sort of meaningful minutes on a really good team at that price.
Do you have any, what are your thoughts?
He's actually one of the guys we've not talked about.
We have not talked about Aiton, really, at all.
I will share those thoughts coming up next.
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So, you know, when you start looking at it, you know, there are a few other guys that maybe
pop up and, you know, if Portland starts to get really active.
and want to get away from the DeAndre Aiton contract.
He suddenly becomes maybe a little bit more bailies,
not somebody that we've talked about.
Where is he on your, would you do that list?
It would depend a lot.
I mean, first of all, I think it's going to be very difficult to do this
and come up with a deal that Portland likes without including Rui.
And while I don't think Rui is untouchable in any way,
particularly with the Lakers having as much front court redundancy,
as they have and a lot of guys defensively playing the four,
including by the way, we should note this.
You guys are aware.
LeBron plays the four.
What you may not be aware of is that he is back to working out again.
He posted an Instagram video of him putting up shots in the gym.
Man, it felt good to get back out there today for the first time since my MCL injury,
almost eight weeks ago, been at it with my rehab and training regiment to get back to form.
not where I want to be ultimately, but off to a good start.
Damn, what a great feeling.
Shout out to my brother Kevin Love for allowing me to crash his workout.
Also shout out to see Brickley 603 for always looking out when I'm in the city, prayer hands
emoji, salute and crown emojis from LeBron.
If you watch the video and probably a lot of you.
Side note.
You know, the prayer hands emoji is my understanding in the maybe the young people.
It's thank you.
It's a high five.
I don't know. Maybe it's versatile because I know a lot of people use it to say thank you.
Well, yeah, but that's a prayer hands. But my understanding is it was actually meant to be a high five.
I could be wrong. I suppose it could be. I'd have to look at all the different various hand emojis to know for sure.
Maybe really examine the angle to see if it seems like two separate pairs of arms and hands.
But either way, like if you watch this workout, LeBron's clearly not going to.
going at game speed, but he also doesn't need to be at game speed right now.
He looks good out there.
It looks comfortable.
He looks fluid.
And also, anytime you watch LeBron workout shirtless, it is just a demoralizing, embarrassing
experience for the rest of us.
Maybe for you.
I look good.
You didn't clearly watch the video.
With DeAndre, like back to the Rue thing, like I think there's a very good possibility
that one way or another, Rui might need to be moved.
even though I think he actually is pretty useful for this team,
but I think it needs to be for the right player.
DeAndre Aitin gets tricky because he's in the last year of an expiring deal,
meaning you get potentially left with that decision of,
okay, DeAndre Aitin showed out for me.
What do I do with that, given DeAndre Aitin's track record over the
course of his career. He clearly has talent and for what it's worth, the same concerns were there
about him in Phoenix and they managed to get to the finals despite every bit of skepticism that they
had. So maybe people just spend too much time focusing on DeAndre Aiton's body language or
vibe or whatever. Yeah, he's definitely a guy whose shortcomings have made it seem like he's a
worse player than he is or even like even if you know he doesn't play winning basketball even a
less productive player than he is i mean he averaged 14 and a half and 10 last season with you know
a block a game and all that kind of stuff shot about 60% from the floor um you know that's that's in 30
minutes a night i mean that's not terrible um he gets hurt a ton he does get hurt a lot
i mean you talk about showing out like my it's the same thing with andrew bine him like i didn't
want to be the guy who had to sign him to next deal because like the the worst case scenario with
a guy like aiden is he plays really well in the 56 games that he plays and so it's the third
season in a row where he's basically under 60 games um and but he played well so like what do you do
with that and it's it's a horrible place to be i would i'd need to talk uh with our friends over at
on Blazers, get more of an idea of what's been happening.
I would want to watch more film on Aiton.
Because you have to remember, too, if you're trading for DeAndre Aiton, you're
using up a lot of your expiring deals just to equal as salary.
So at that point, like, unless you have to be pretty sure this is the move you want to make
because even if it doesn't cost you like Austin or Dalton or your first,
which are some of your better tradable assets,
you're also losing a lot of the expirings that you could have to bring in different players.
So you got to feel pretty good about it.
I get why, because whoever asked us in this show,
they're not the first person to bring up Aiton.
I get why he comes up.
And I could picture it being a good trade.
Don't get me wrong.
I could picture it working.
And I could picture that dude catching lobs from Luca and learning professionalism from
LeBron and like all that stuff.
But I'd be nervous.
Yeah.
I'd rather I'd rather stick with the the formulas that we've all been talking about at this
point, which is, you know, Claxton, Gafford, all that.
So there's you guys that are just less.
I'd rather make a smaller trade for Time Lord if it was possible, Robert William.
If I'm right, I mean, if I'm going to take a chance on a guy who is always hurt or whatever,
Williams costs less than, you know, just literally costs less to put together a deal.
I'd rather make a lower stakes trade for Williams while obviously looking for another center.
Yeah, for sure. Well, yeah, no, you can't rely on him to be your guy.
You mentioned the LeBron thing.
we should
we should probably
before we go make a note
of Alex Caruso
briefly getting the
basketball Twitterverse
all angry
and whatever he
said at his press conference
after the Thunder won on Sunday night
I finally got a real one
meaning like a real championship
that done
in a normal way without a pandemic and a bubble.
In front of crowds, on the road.
All this stuff.
In a normal idea.
And so, you know, he all of a sudden, particularly Lakers fans are freaking out,
Alex Caruso's burying the title.
And he pointed out that he was being sarcastic.
And really, it was a response to those people who were discounting the title that he had,
calling it less or whatever.
He's like, okay, fine.
Discount that one.
I got another one now.
So bleep both of you.
I believe all of you, I should say.
It's a reminder.
I mean, he was being sarcastic,
but it's sarcasm that comes from play.
It is a reminder of how people, many people regard that 2020 championship.
It's also worth noting by Caruso's own admission.
He was a few beers in.
So there was some outcome.
alcohol fueling the sarcasm, which can always affect the delivery.
You know he's won a title because he was the only guy on that roster
who knew how to open a champagne bottle.
Right.
Like some of this really was just like he's feeling loopy.
He's feeling a little loose-lipped.
And he's willing to be sarcastic because he just won a championship.
And it's his second one.
And like he said, nobody can say anything anymore.
So shut the bleep up.
It's like, fine.
You don't think my first one counted.
I have a second one.
Look, it's similar to what I've talked about a lot over the years about how for a large sect of NBA fans, who I think are all, frankly, idiots, Kobe had to win his fourth ring in order to win his first.
Because in the eyes of a lot of those fans, because Kobe had never won one without Shaq, the first three somehow were discounted as if, like, Kobe was just some dude along for the ride.
sitting their shotgun
while everyone else did all the work.
Like,
they don't,
they don't. Nicola Topich winning one
with the,
uh, the thunder this year.
He didn't play a minute because he was hurt.
I mean,
I've also said this before.
Like,
if you look at the contemporary guard,
you know, Kobe's contemporary among guards,
like the best of them,
Alan Iverson, Ray Allen, Vince Carter,
Tracy McGready,
like Jason Kidd.
there are many of them.
I'd say all of them.
If they had played one season with Shaq,
could they have gotten a ring?
Yeah.
If they played two in a row, could they have repeated?
Maybe.
Could any of those guys
had been the guard on the three-peat team
with Shaq?
Hell no.
The list begins and ends with Kobe
among guards.
And other than maybe Tim Duncan,
I don't know if there was anybody else
playing at the time
that I would say could have been
in that three-peak conversation.
period because so much was required between talent and discipline and the will to get through
all of this stuff.
Like, there's a reason teams don't three Pete.
It's as much mentally as it is physically taxing.
But again, for a lot of people, Kobe had to win number four to win number one.
This is the same type of commentary that leads to Alex Caruso making self-deprecating jokes that
really are middle fingers.
Yeah, but look, I, I'm not somebody who thinks that title is, deserves an asterisk or it doesn't count or whatever.
It is no less than any other title that's, that's ever been won in terms, and in some ways, in terms of the difficulty, and LeBron's talked about this a ton.
In some ways, it was harder.
But what it is is different.
It's just different than all the other ones.
I don't think it's any less, but it's definitely just, it's different.
The circumstances weren't replicable.
And so to some degree, it's a little bit of like a, what do you do with this kind of title in terms of trying, you know, for all the legacy talk and this and that, whatever.
But I do like that Caruso feels like he has an FU to those people who are, you know, who somehow didn't think the first one counted.
And we covered Alex.
He was awesome.
Alex was a great guy.
I do want to, before we're done, you know, this summer at the very least,
I do want to talk about why people hate the thunder so much and all that kind of stuff.
But in the meantime, Andy is going to later in the week, you're going to be heading out for a little bit of time away.
I'll have some guests lined up for the show.
A couple of shows coming up at the end of the week.
Of course, we'll be back, though, for Wednesday to set all that up.
And we'll see everyone then.
