Buy or Sell: Which OKC Thunder free agents should stay?
By Ryan Love
Should the OKC Thunder Buy or Sell: Danilo Gallinari
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s improbable run to the playoffs ended despite the efforts of its newcomers that made the regular season so special.
Chris Paul anchored the team, but the addition of Danilo Gallinari added another dimension to the way the team played — and revived Gallinari’s quiet career.
Gallinari, 32, made several stops in his injury-plagued career from New York, to Denver, to Los Angeles, and finally Oklahoma City.
The Thunder traded for Gallinari’s remaining $21,587,579 contract in the deal that sent Paul George to the LA Clippers and brought back promising young star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
What felt like a salary-based, short-term asset led to one of Gallinari’s best career seasons.
He averaged 18.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists as the 62-game starter at power forward for the Thunder.
Gallinari played the ever-versatile stretch-4 position in Oklahoma City.
He shot the ball at 43.8 percent from the floor. In addition, he shot 40.5 percent from 3-point range, good for 19th in the NBA.
Gallinari didn’t let up in the playoffs against the Houston Rockets.
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Although he had a couple of forgettable performances on the stat sheet — scoring one point in Game 5 and four points in Game 7 — he showed he could still take over a game with performances of 29, 20 and 25 points in the series.
Regardless of Gallinari’s most recent work, the Thunder should look to bring him back.
The Thunder could look to do the rebuild they skipped last season — or push for another playoff run with Chris Paul’s remaining years.
Gallinari would fit in with either version of the team that follows. He’s proven to work well with the Thunder’s young talent while also showing he’s still conditioned to carry a quarter or half when the team is struggling.
However, as an unrestricted free agent, he’ll have his pick of the litter as several talented teams like the Bucks, Heat or Lakers will look to retool with the core they have now.
If the Thunder do make an offer, they likely won’t have a deal that would be better than those teams that are more likely to pay a higher price for a one or two-year rental.