By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
Former NBA executive Isiah Thomas made many questionable decisions during his tenure as the New York Knicks President of Basketball Operations. One of his former draft picks is currently available via a trade.
Danilo Gallinari — who was traded from the Knicks to the Denver Nuggets for the Carmelo Anthony in 2011 — is expected to be traded. The entire Nuggets team is available as we are hours away from the NBA Draft tonight from Brooklyn, New York at the Barclays Center.
It is not clear who he would be dealt too — if it would be now, or later on in the summer. One team that he’s expected not to be traded to is the Knicks.
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Phil Jackson — who is now in charge — reportedly has no interest in the former Italian basketball player. Gallinari has one year remaining on his contract of a four-year, $42 million contract.
The 26-year-old made $10.8 million this past season — which was his fourth full season with the team. He’s expected to make $11.5 million during the 2015-16 season, before becoming a free agent.
One thing the Nuggets are going to have problems with in any attempt to deal him is that he’s struggled to stay healthy. While he was hampered, he did have a 47-point game on April 10th against the Dallas Mavericks.
He also had a 40-point performance at the Orlando Magic on March 22nd. Those were the two best games of his season, as he averaged less than 30 points in all other games.
The Nuggets were paying him a lot of money to be a back up. He was playing behind Wilson Chandler at small forward.
Yet, the 6-foot-10 forward could also play power forward should a team acquire him to do that. Gallinari was the 6th overall pick in the 2008 draft.
This summer, the Knicks are finally going to be able to escape the bad contract of Andrea Bargnani, who is also a former Italian player, and they don’t want another bad contract as they look to start over with Anthony. There’s speculation that the Knicks would use their free agent cap space to get either LaMarcus Aldridge or Marc Gasol.
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ESPN is reporting that Aldridge is expected to leave the Portland Trail Blazers via free agency, as the Mavericks are the favorite to land him with the Knicks in the mix.
Gallinari has appeared in 59 games, including 27 starts this season. He averaged 12.4 points per game.
In addition, he averaged 3.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.3 blocks in 24.2 minutes per game.
He returned to the league this season after missing the 2013-14 season due to an ACL injury. Gallinari has been a part of the Nuggets since the 2010-11 season following a February 2011 trade.
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