Danilo Gallinari: The Rooster Crows Again

Millions of youth around the world grow up dreaming, and praying, to one day become a professional athlete.

After all, getting paid an absurd amount of money to merely play a game that you love? That’s the universal dream.

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However, for one reason or another — whether, making a series of irrational decisions spoiled your chances at the pros, you lacked the luxury of having access to the proper training and/or exposure, or, the most likely scenario, you just weren’t fortunate enough to win the genetic lottery — only a special selected few get to savor the life as a celebrated sportsperson.

But, as with any other profession, the fortunes of your livelihood can change in a split second. And, unlike almost every other career choice, the occupation span of an athlete is unusually finite.

For Danilo Gallinari, he has experienced the highs as a professional basketball player — hailing from Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, the skilled 6’10” forward was once a mid-lottery pick (eighth overall in 2008) of the New York Knicks. After several impressive seasons donning the blue and orange, where he finished second among all NBA players in three-pointers made in just his second season in the league, this umpteenth rendition of the Italian Stallion would serve as the central piece in the Carmelo Anthony-trade — which ultimately landed him with the Denver Nuggets.

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The artist known as “the Rooster” has alternatively endured many of trials and tribulations that come with being a top-level sporting pro.

Specifically, on a dreary night in early-April of 2013, Gallo would injure his knee in a late-season contest against the Dallas Mavericks. Although the ailment was appropriately diagnosed as a torn ACL, the multi-functional forward underwent surgery later on during said month to repair meniscus damage, but without addressing the ACL tear.

Sure enough, a near six months later, Danilo’s knee did not recover accordingly; thus, in January of 2014, he had to undergo a comprehensive ACL reconstruction surgery, which effectively knocked Gallo out for the entirety of the 2013-14 season.

Going under the knife once is a daunting enough psychological hurdle to leap past, but two in a half year span? Many pundits wondered if Gallinari would ever be the same.

He would reaffirm many of the concerns people had early on last season, averaging just 6.7 points and 3.0 rebounds per game on just 40.8 percent eFG%* and 48.8 percent TS%** during the Nuggets’ first 21 matches while playing just 17.8 minutes a contest before taking most of December off to “rest and heal” his surgically-repaired knee.

*eFG% = effective field goal percentage = (FG + 0.5 * 3P) / FGA

**TS% = true shooting percentage = PTS / (2 ( FGA + 0.44 x FTA) )

Gallo would bounce back strong after his mini-sabbatical, though, starting all 24 games after the All-Star break en route to putting up an impressive 18.6 points per game — which would have been a career-best mark if extrapolated to a full season — and 4.8 rebounds a contest on an ultra-efficient 60.2 percent TS% while playing over 31.2 minutes per game. He also delivered a memorable 47-point performance (a career-high) nearly two years to the date of his initial knee injury.

Truth be told, however, before the injury, Gallinari had always been somewhat of a puzzling enigma.

In theory, an agile 6’10” stalwart who handles the ball and creates off the bounce like a guard with range extending well beyond the three-point line — a special type of big man who possesses clairvoyant vision and the ability to start the break after grabbing a defensive board — should unequivocally be a perennial All-Star.

He had a tendency of putting together a stretch of breathtaking basketball, only to follow it up with a series of uneventful games. In addition, he inherently lacks the quickness and agility to keep up defensively with NBA wings.

Likewise, his lack of elite explosiveness hinders his ability to create when serving as a swingman. His handle, while extremely fluid for a man of his size, is slightly too upright; therefore, he struggles to operate with a live dribble in tight quarters, especially when facing a physical perimeter defender.

Gallinari’s physical tools and athleticism has always screamed stretch forward, but for some odd reason, he has always been pigeonholed primarily at the three. At the four, the position he has assumed almost exclusively during his ongoing late-summer stint with the Italian national basketball team, he has the advantage in skill and/or quickness in almost every matchup placed in front of him.

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In fact, according to 82games.com, the versatile forward’s PER jumped from 15.1 (league average) to 18.0 last season when swinging from the three to the four. Similarly, during the 2012-13 campaign, his PER enjoyed a similar spike when acting as a stretch four, increasing from 14.1 to 20.7. It is also worth noting that his eFG% also inflated by more than three percent when making the aforementioned positional switch.

While rebounding issues will undoubtedly surface with Gallo at the four, deploying lineups that tether Danilo with Jusuf Nurkic — who grabbed 26.1 percent of all available defensive rebounds last season as a rookie — and Kenneth Faried — who owned a 22.9 defensive rebounding rate last year — in super small-ball lineups, should ameliorate much of the said risk.

Defensively, the Rooster is big and strong enough to hold his ground against most fours, and he won’t have to face many of lingering problems that plagued him when guarding wings — namely, lateral foot speed and fighting through screens.

Gallinari has given us an extended sample of how devastating he can be at the power forward position during EuroBasket 2015. Not only is he averaging approximately 21.0 points per game*, he is also grabbing 7.6 rebounds a contest while playing alongside renowned defensive-sieve, Andrea Bargnani.

More encouragingly, in an effort to conform to modern analytics, Danilo is averaging over one free throw attempt per field goal attempt (9.8 FTA vs 8.4 FGA, or an absurd 1.167 free throw rate) and over a third of field goal tries have derived from beyond the arc.

*as of September 10, 2015

By all accounts — after years of stubbornly remaining as a fringe playoff contender post-Melo-trade — the Nuggets are entering an indefinite period of rebuilding/transitioning.

Even given how promising their seventh overall selection of this past year’s draft, Emmanuel Mudiay, looks at present, giving the keys to a wide-eyed rookie will most likely net Denver another high lottery pick next season as the franchise looks to roster-slimmin’-for–Ben-Simmons (or in laymen’s terms, tank for Ben Simmons).

More explicitly, by essentially swapping one of the most underrated floor generals in the game — off-court discretions aside — in Ty Lawson, with a raw lead guard who only played 12 games last season in the archaic Chinese Basketball Association, most pundits believe the Nuggets will finish near the bottom of the West, especially when taking into consideration the competitiveness of the conference from top to bottom.

But, contrary to popular opinion, Denver still has a chance to be sneakily competitive next year — with the caveat lying in the hands of first-year Nuggets head coach, Mike Malone, and how he plans on utilizing the multi-faceted Gallo.

If Summer League is of any indication, Mudiay is as equipped as any 19-year-old on the planet to effectively run an NBA-style spread pick-and-roll system. The bevy of fruitful scoring and playmaking opportunities a Manny-Danilo one-four pick-and-pop, or alternatively, taking a page of team Italy’s playbook, and running a four-five spread pick-and-roll with Gallinari as the ballhandler, can engender could propel the 27-year-old into a genuine breakout season — maybe even a first-time All-Star berth, if all the cards fall in his favor.

All in all, based on his sterling play towards the end of last season — which has carried over to his fine performance this summer — the Rooster is back, fully healed, and crowing more ferociously than ever.

On the other hand, whether Danilo Gallinari can become one of the handfuls of breakthrough stars of 2016, or decay until the trade deadline when he suddenly resurfaces as a hot target, will be determined predominantly by the role he plays this upcoming season.

Next: Denver Nuggets: 2015-16 Season Outlook

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