Chicago Bulls: 3 most untouchable players in trade talks

3. Daniel Gafford, Center

Although he got off to a hotter start than he finished just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced NBA season hiatus, the former Arkansas Razorbacks 6-foot-10 and 235 pound rim running rookie center Daniel Gafford still brings a lot of value to the table. If there was anything that GarPax did well prior to getting ousted as the lead voices in the front office, it was a decent 2019 NBA Draft class.

Gafford was one of the real value picks from the 2019 draft, as the Bulls got him in the second round (38th overall). He played in 43 games prior to the season getting placed on pause. In those 43 games played, he averaged 5.1 points per game, 2.5 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 0.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks, while shooting 70.1 percent from the field and 53.3 percent from the charity stripe.

That resulted in Gafford registering a box plus/minus rating of -1.3, 0.1 value over replacement player rating, 124 offensive rating/109 defensive rating, .146 win shares per 48 minutes, 68.6 true shooting percentage, and 8.7 percent block rate. The advanced metric paint a mixed picture for Gafford in terms of his value and efficiency so far during his rookie campaign.

If the Bulls do get to play anymore games before the end of their 2019-20 campaign, then it will be interesting to see if Gafford can recapture the form he found at the outset of this season. But Karnisovas should keep him around either way since he offers a ton of value for the contract he’s on and provides very valuable frontcourt depth.