Bulls rookie Daniel Gafford makes Summer League statement

LAS VEGAS — Rookie guard Coby White was credited with a breathtaking assist, but Bobby Portis had to know he played a part in rookie big man Daniel Gafford’s first points in the Bulls’ Summer League opener Friday.

It didn’t take long for Gafford, the Bulls’ second-round pick in the NBA Draft last month, to announce his presence to the crowd at the Thomas and Mack Center. White, the Bulls’ first-round pick, dribbled right, saw a streaking Gafford racing down the paint and lofted a pass that Gafford snagged and threw down for a vicious dunk.

The play not only showed some of the athleticism the Bulls saw in Gafford, who was 9-for-10 from the field in a 21-point, 10-rebound performance, but it also showcased some of the high energy he promised to deliver. Kind of like Portis, the last player the Bulls drafted out of Arkansas.

While Portis never will have Gafford’s athleticism, Gafford said he was a huge influence on him coming from the Razorbacks family.

‘‘It was always conversations like just keeping my head in the right place, keeping a great work ethic to be able to get to where I wanted to be with my career and whatnot,’’ Gafford said of the heart-to-hearts he would have with Portis. ‘‘Just to have a guy like that on your side to be able to talk to them is always good because he’s been through it and is still going through it.’’

The Bulls traded Portis and Jabari Parker to the Wizards for Otto Porter Jr. at the deadline last season. Portis became a free agent after the season and recently agreed to a deal with the Knicks.

His departure, as well as Robin Lopez agreeing to terms on a deal with the Bucks, left some holes in the Bulls’ frontcourt heading into the summer. That means Gafford has a chance to get some playing time.

Gafford, who was projected to be a late-first-round pick after his freshman season, opted to stay in school for another year. It didn’t pay off for him in terms of his draft position, but maybe it will for the Bulls, who think they got a steal with the 38th pick.

‘‘[The] 38th pick really wasn’t where I was trying to be, but they put their trust in me to be able to come to the program and come in and be ready to work and do good things here,’’ Gafford said. ‘‘I saw my range wasn’t where I was going to be going, so I just told my agent to get me somewhere, and he got me here.’’

Gafford doesn’t know exactly why he fell in the draft from one year to the next, but he hopes to prove a lot of people wrong.

‘‘I don’t know, it could have been a lot of things,’’ Gafford said. ‘‘It could have been me, could have been the draft. It’s a lot of things. Mainly, I would put that on me. I could have come out that first year; I could have been a first-round pick, probably, my first year.

‘‘I decided to [go back to school] to get that year under my belt, so I could be able to withstand this process. Because if I would have come out my freshman year, this process would have ate me up, and I didn’t want that to happen.’’