The Dallas Mavericks are reportedly exploring a draft-night deal that would send Daniel Gafford out in exchange for a chance to move from No. 30 into the top 20 of the 2026 NBA Draft. The timing is sharp: Dallas has the No. 9 overall pick too, and the front office is now trying to turn a crowded draft position into a cleaner path to another young piece.
That is why Hannes Steinbach is being searched now, even though the immediate story is bigger than one name. After the Dusty May news on Monday, Brett Siegel reported that Michigan's Aday Mara had suddenly become a real candidate for the Mavericks with the No. 9 pick, while Dallas was also shopping Gafford in an effort to move up from No. 30 to the top 20. Jackson Stone, who joined ClutchPoints in 2023, reported the shift as the Mavericks started to look at how their draft board might change before Tuesday evening in Brooklyn.
The logic is straightforward. Dallas enters the draft with two first-round picks and a need for more young talent around Cooper Flagg, but it also has to decide whether to keep paying for a frontcourt that may soon be crowded. Mara's strong combine showing and his connection to Dusty May, who coached him to a national championship win this past season with the Wolverines, gave him a real opening at No. 9. If Dallas uses that pick on another big man, Gafford's place in the rotation starts to look shaky.
That is where the friction sits. Plenty of other teams would want Gafford for his offensive rebounding and interior presence, which makes him a real asset on the trade market. But in Dallas, the same qualities can look redundant if Dereck Lively II is already anchoring the middle and Mara is added behind him. The Mavericks are not just deciding whether to trade Gafford; they are deciding whether the best use of a veteran center is as the price of moving a late first-round pick into the top 20.
What happens next is immediate. The NBA Draft begins Tuesday evening in Brooklyn, and Dallas will have to choose whether to keep both first-round picks, use No. 9 on a player like Mara, or cash in Gafford to climb higher from No. 30. For now, the clearest read is that Gafford's future is tied to how aggressively the Mavericks want to reshape the draft before the clock starts.
