Daniel Gafford had the best stretch of his brief career after being traded to the Wizards in March and he’s spending the summer trying to upgrade his low-post moves, writes Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. With a compressed schedule caused by an early-season outbreak of COVID-19, Washington went weeks without practicing, so Gafford had to save the tweaks to his game for the offseason.
Used as a backup center after being acquired from the Bulls, Gafford averaged 10.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 23 games. He may take over the starting role this season and wants to become more of a scoring threat.
“I’m really just focusing on if I get the ball down in the post, working on my face-up game,” Gafford said. “Shooting the ball more, just trying to be more of a threat on the floor when I’m out there, during the times that I get on the floor.”
There’s more from Washington:
- Injured center Thomas Bryant may be ready to return early in the upcoming season, relays Bijan Todd of NBC Sports Washington. Bryant is working his way back from a torn ACL he suffered in January, and his agent, Todd Ramasar, provided an encouraging update this week on SiriusXM NBA Radio. “He’s doing great. He’s right on track in terms of his recovery,” Ramasar said. “If I’m guestimating in talking to his trainers, he’s probably going to make a return towards the end of this (calendar 2021) year, or let’s say, the beginning of the regular season.”
- Bradley Beal is already a nightmare for opposing defenses and he’s working to expand his game even further, Hughes adds in a separate story. Beal hopes to become more effective on longer three-point shots to put pressure on the defense as soon as he crosses half court. “Deeper threes. I’m not trying to compete with (Damian Lillard), I’m not Logo Lillard. But I want to shoot deeper threes and shoot more threes,” Beal said. “You know I need to shoot more threes. You probably say it all the time. And, obviously, make them. I have to make them.”
- Beal has been teaming with new backcourt partner Spencer Dinwiddie in pickup games hosted by skills trainer Drew Hanlen, according to Mike DePrisco of NBC Sports.
Notice how Beal’s trying to achieve Logo Lillard status. Did he not mention Curry because that’s practically unattainable status? LOL, just kidding of course. If Beal extends his three-point range to that of Curry and Dame it would be amazing. These guys today shoot the lights out from Super distance.
Steph needs to make 168 more 3-pointers to reach 3000 after he breaks Ray Allen’s record of 2973. Then Harden should be the next player to reach that milestone in a few years. At the rate 3-point shots are taken these days others will surely join them sometime in the not too distant future.
He literally said ” I’m not trying to compete with (Damian Lillard), I’m not Logo Lillard.” He’s not trying to achieve that status
Good catch because you’re right he did not say he wanted to shoot from the logo but rather just deeper threes. Thumbs up.
The NBA said the 3PT shot would never work. When the ABA used it. It really has come a long ways. And today it is a big weapon. Too bad “The Logo” never had it.
Yes you could say that today’s stats are skewed because of the three-point shot. As a reference one day I heard a guy talking about Pete Maravich’s 40-point plus average in college and he actually charted every shot of maravich’s high-scoring season and said the average would have been something like 56 points a game if they had the three-pointer back then in Maravich time. Can you imagine a guy averaging 56 points a game in college? Incredible.
Wizards seem like they’re on the cusp of being a contender in the East. If Kispert, Rui and Dani can be legitimate NBA starters with with Beal, Spence, Gafford and Bertans they could match up well with most eastern teams. I think they’re a major piece away but if one of those three young first rounders I mentioned can shoot and play defense, well maybe they already have that piece.
Over any of miami Brooklyn Milwaukee phili or Atlanta?
Completely disagree, they have 1 all star, 1 average point guard, a bunch of young forwards and some vet role players. They will be struggling for the 8th seed yet again.
The NBA is becoming too dependent on the 3 pt shot. If that’s the case why not have a 4 Point line.
It would be enough if refs started calling shooting fouls on long desperation shots!
Gotta like the “pickup” workouts, and that Dinwiddie is NOT trying to show how fit his legs are.