Going into the trade deadline, the Washington Wizards were not expected to be big buyers, if they were even buyers at all. Some fans and writers (including myself) expected them to stand pat completely and move through the deadline with an unchanged roster.
But, as we know this team is good at keeping their cards close to the chest. Shortly before the deadline, the Wizards sent out Troy Brown Jr. and Moritz Wagner in exchange for Daniel Gafford and Chandler Hutchinson as part of a three team trade with the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls.
When the trade went down, I don’t think a lot of people looked at this as some major move for either side. Certainly not a needle-moving pick on par with Aaron Gordon to the Denver Nuggets or Lou Williams to the Atlanta Hawks. This one looked more like swap two intriguing young prospects (Brown and Gafford) who would benefit from a change of scenery as opposed to the move that would put any of these teams over the edge.
After making the move at the trade deadline to bring in Daniel Gafford, the Washington Wizards are realizing he provides production that this team has desperately needed.
The move that brought Gafford and Hutchison to Washington is the type of move that has become familiar during the Tommy Sheppard era; the Wizards got two young, relatively cheap players on the fringes of their current roster. In D.C., they’re both getting a second chance. Daniel Gafford is definitely making the most of a new situation, and boy are the Wizards reaping the benefits.