Aside from grainy YouTube videos of Gallinari in Milan, there is little for Knicks fans to base their impressions on. Even Donnie Walsh, the Knicks’ president, has never seen him play in person, although he watched Gallinari work out twice.But Walsh received in-depth reports from Kevin Wilson, the Knicks’ director of international scouting, and got firsthand accounts from two other staff members: Glen Grunwald, the senior vice president, and Isiah Thomas, the deposed team president, whom Walsh dispatched to Europe last month.
The most comprehensive information came from Wilson, who has been tracking Gallinari for three years, since Gallinari turned professional at 16.
“He was a special kid from an early age,” Wilson said.
It was not until recently that Wilson saw something more. In the second half of last season, “I really zeroed in on how big his heart was, how hard he worked, how much improvement he’d made, how good he could become,” Wilson said. “Because he’s not a finished product.”
According to Wilson, Gallinari has exceptional ball-handling skills for his size, a high basketball I.Q. and a jump shot that is much better than he showed in Europe. He can hit the N.B.A. 3-pointer consistently and is an adept passer with good court vision, Wilson said. But unlike the stereotypical European big man — including his countryman Andrea Bargnani — Gallinari is not content to float on the perimeter.
Wilson said that Gallinari aggressively drove to the basket and averaged 8 to 10 free-throw attempts a game this season. Gallinari was his team’s primary fourth-quarter option, as a scorer and a playmaker.
“He has toughness,” Wilson said. “American guys over there heard that he was ‘the Man,’ so they wanted to put him in his place. They would pop him, they would ’bow him, they would hit him. He would take it. He wouldn’t get mad,he wouldn’t get rattled. Just come down, make a basket on them, look at them, wouldn’t back down.”
Gallinari can play either forward position, although he may not have the lateral quickness to guard small forwards or the muscle yet to guard some power forwards. He is listed at 210 pounds, but the Knicks intend to put him on a weight training and conditioning program immediately. (They will also see his baseball skills — Gallinari is throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the Mets-Yankees game Saturday.)
Gallinari is staying in the United States for the next three weeks and will play for the Knicks’ summer-league team in Las Vegas next month.
And then there is this: Gallinari is probably still growing. He said that he measured 6 feet 9 inches without shoes and that doctors told him he would grow another inch or two.
“The combination of being able to take it to the goal and to shoot from the outside, for a guy that big, is going to be, I think, a pretty lethal combination,” Walsh said.
Talent and size do not always translate immediately from Europe to the N.B.A., particularly among younger players. Dirk Nowitzki looked like a bust as a 20-year-old rookie in 1999, then blossomed over the next few years
“You might have to wait on him,” Wilson said of Gallinari. “You’re going to have to work with him, wait on him, encourage him, develop him, play him, let him take his lumps. It will make him stronger, it will make him better.”
Walsh said Gallinari needed to adjust to the N.B.A. game and lifestyle.
Walsh acknowledged that he tried to acquire another high draft pick without giving up the No. 6 pick, all but confirming reports that he discussed acquiring Memphis’s pick at No. 5. The Grizzlies drafted forward Kevin Love and later shipped him to Minnesota for guard O. J. Mayo. Walsh said he did not have the assets to pull off a deal.
The Knicks still need a point guard, but Walsh seemed unimpressed with the ones who were available at No. 6.
“I think there are other ways to solve the problem, if we have a problem,” he said.
