{"id":257417,"date":"2026-06-06T11:13:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T11:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/257417\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T11:13:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T11:13:47","slug":"western-notes-gafford-queen-a-green-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/257417\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Notes: Gafford, Queen, A. Green, Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"

After battling a nagging right ankle sprain throughout the 2025\/26 season, Mavericks center Daniel Gafford<\/a> said on Friday that he\u2019s taking his time to fully recover before resuming on-court work, according to Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter video link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting there. The rehab is good. I\u2019m staying consistent. I\u2019m holding myself accountable to just take care of my body \u2026 I don\u2019t want to rush anything,\u201d Gafford said. \u201cWhenever I get back on the court and do all the workouts, I want to be 100% healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gafford was limited 55 regular season appearances this season due to the injury, which he sustained<\/a> on the first day<\/a> of training camp last fall. He averaged 9.5 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 21.7 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old big man was also asked for his early impressions of new president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and the changes he\u2019s made to the organization so far (Twitter video link<\/a> via Curtis).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a business. I\u2019m not necessarily surprised when it comes to some of the things that he\u2019s done with the organization because I\u2019m pretty sure he already had that in his back pocket when he got hired,\u201d Gafford said. \u201cI\u2019m just sitting back and watching from afar. \u2026 I\u2019ve yet to get the chance to sit down and talk with him, but he made sure he called me and we had a good conversation on the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have more from around the Western Conference:<\/p>\n

Pelicans center Derik Queen<\/a> reconnected with former teammate Jose Alvarado<\/a> and asked Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> for advice in his role as a player correspondent at the NBA Finals on Wednesday, as Rashad Milligan of NOLA.com<\/a> relays. \u201cI mean, you already are superbly talented,\u201d Towns said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it firsthand. I think, for me, it\u2019d be more about locking into the film consistently. Never leave the gym, be infatuated with the work. I know it\u2019s weird, but JB [Jalen Brunson<\/a>] has it on his shirt, but the magic really is in the work. The real gift about experience is that you\u2019ll find ways to accomplish the same goal and get the stats with using way less energy. And with that, that\u2019s where experience really kicks in, and it\u2019s a beauty.\u201d
\nThe Pelicans have made another addition to their front office, hiring Amanda Green as executive strategy and analytics, the team announced (via Twitter<\/a>). Green is a longtime former Thunder executive who got her start in San Antonio and previously held a role in the league office, writes Rod Walker of NOLA.com<\/a>. New Orleans hired<\/a> Thomas Scott on Thursday to be the general manager of the team\u2019s G League affiliate.
\nWisconsin guard Nick Boyd<\/a>, Arizona guard Anthony Dell\u2019Orso<\/a>, Miami (OH) guard Peter Suder<\/a>, Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton<\/a>, Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn<\/a> and BYU center Keba Keita<\/a> are among the players who have worked out for the Clippers this week, league sources tell Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link<\/a>). Thorton is the top-ranked prospect in that group on ESPN\u2019s big board<\/a>, coming in at No. 52. Los Angeles currently controls the fifth, 36th and 52nd picks in this month\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After battling a nagging right ankle sprain throughout the 2025\/26 season, Mavericks center Daniel Gafford said on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[100294,100295,100296,60186,7068,34179,1555,100297,9,24,100298,63,100299,122,124,123,68912],"class_list":["post-257417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-amanda-green","tag-anthony-dellorso","tag-bruce-thornton","tag-daniel-gafford","tag-derik-queen","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-keba-keita","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nick-boyd","tag-nyc","tag-peter-suder","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-trey-kaufman-renn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}