AnubisADL wrote:

nixluva wrote:I see good things in Gallo. I think he's still developing and finding his way in the NBA and I think it's too soon to give up on him as if he's a finished product. I've seen growth this year and I don't want to assume that this kid is not gonna "get it" one day soon. We see a lot of young talent play inconsistently early on and not everyone develops at the same speed. ie Billups. You can't get crazy. That's why I love Donnie. He's not a guy that makes rash decisions.

How long are we supposed to give him to develop? 2-3 more seasons? By then Amare will be 31 yrs old.

People like to use Billups as an example but most guys arent turning the corner after their 3rd-4th years in the league.

-Will wants it more than Gallo? That's BS. Will is one of the least aggressive players in the league. Dude is so tentative it's unbelivable. Will just happens to be a bit more talented.

-Gallo and Will have both made very nice improvements in their game. Gallo's passing and intelligence took a huge leap. He kicks it out when driving because the defense collapses on him! Last year he would have kept driving into the double team and threw up a terrible shot. Now he makes the smart play almost all the time.

-You get shots by moving? Yo, where have you been the last 2 years? This is mainly a pick and roll offense. NY only uses a few sets where Fields comes around Amare. Will hardly moves unless he is setting the pick and breaking to the basket.

-Again with the improvement? Nothing new in Gallo's game? he is driving better, passing much better, and playing even better d than he was last year. Why? Because his mid range game struggles and he rarely posts up? Again, SPACING, uptempo...

-Will's driving was better last year. Especially given that he had almost no jumper last year. Will needs to drive left more. He's shown a couple solid lefty drives this year. MDA said it himself last year that Will has one of the best right handed drives in the league. At the time I agreed but he's fallen off a bit in creating by himself.

Gallo still can improve A LOT, but saying that he didn't from last year to now is stupidity. He went from nothing but a 3 point jacker to a very solid all around player.

However what makes me want to keep him on the team is I think he'll be one of those players who really steps up in the playoffs, and thats really rare and valuable to have- I remember Alan Houston in his first few years with us would disappoint in the regular season (in much the same way Gallo sometimes does) but stepped it up come the playoffs, so all was quickly forgiven come May!

tj23 wrote:Ok, let me try to understand this sh!tty breakdown.

-Will wants it more than Gallo? That's BS. Will is one of the least aggressive players in the league. Dude is so tentative it's unbelivable. Will just happens to be a bit more talented.

-Gallo and Will have both made very nice improvements in their game. Gallo's passing and intelligence took a huge leap. He kicks it out when driving because the defense collapses on him! Last year he would have kept driving into the double team and threw up a terrible shot. Now he makes the smart play almost all the time.

-You get shots by moving? Yo, where have you been the last 2 years? This is mainly a pick and roll offense. NY only uses a few sets where Fields comes around Amare. Will hardly moves unless he is setting the pick and breaking to the basket.

-Again with the improvement? Nothing new in Gallo's game? he is driving better, passing much better, and playing even better d than he was last year. Why? Because his mid range game struggles and he rarely posts up? Again, SPACING, uptempo...

-Will's driving was better last year. Especially given that he had almost no jumper last year. Will needs to drive left more. He's shown a couple solid lefty drives this year. MDA said it himself last year that Will has one of the best right handed drives in the league. At the time I agreed but he's fallen off a bit in creating by himself.

Gallo still can improve A LOT, but saying that he didn't from last year to now is stupidity. He went from nothing but a 3 point jacker to a very solid all around player.

- Chandler more talented than Gallo? Chandler isn't passing up shot opportunities.

- So instead of becoming a better finisher at the rim he passes to perimeter and you call that a huge improvement. He could do that last year.

- Gallo is looking like the same way he played toward the end of last year. Good a game here and there and forgettable for most games.

- Gallo can improve but that doesnt mean he will. I can name a few players around the league that fans are waiting to improve.

AnubisADL wrote:

tj23 wrote:Ok, let me try to understand this sh!tty breakdown.

-Will wants it more than Gallo? That's BS. Will is one of the least aggressive players in the league. Dude is so tentative it's unbelivable. Will just happens to be a bit more talented.

-Gallo and Will have both made very nice improvements in their game. Gallo's passing and intelligence took a huge leap. He kicks it out when driving because the defense collapses on him! Last year he would have kept driving into the double team and threw up a terrible shot. Now he makes the smart play almost all the time.

-You get shots by moving? Yo, where have you been the last 2 years? This is mainly a pick and roll offense. NY only uses a few sets where Fields comes around Amare. Will hardly moves unless he is setting the pick and breaking to the basket.

-Again with the improvement? Nothing new in Gallo's game? he is driving better, passing much better, and playing even better d than he was last year. Why? Because his mid range game struggles and he rarely posts up? Again, SPACING, uptempo...

-Will's driving was better last year. Especially given that he had almost no jumper last year. Will needs to drive left more. He's shown a couple solid lefty drives this year. MDA said it himself last year that Will has one of the best right handed drives in the league. At the time I agreed but he's fallen off a bit in creating by himself.

Gallo still can improve A LOT, but saying that he didn't from last year to now is stupidity. He went from nothing but a 3 point jacker to a very solid all around player.

- Chandler more talented than Gallo? Chandler isn't passing up shot opportunities.

- So instead of becoming a better finisher at the rim he passes to perimeter and you call that a huge improvement. He could do that last year.

- Gallo is looking like the same way he played toward the end of last year. Good a game here and there and forgettable for most games.

- Gallo can improve but that doesnt mean he will. I can name a few players around the league that fans are waiting to improve.

Vmart wrote:I remember how the this same board use to rip KVH, but whats the difference between Gallo and KVH if anything KVH use to be a better player than Gallo.

wow you did not just go there. kvh was yet another player to get next coming of bird rep. and when he was in new jersey he came damn close, but faded into just being another gallo. ooooo no i didnt! just teasing i like gallo but he needs to step up or briggs will start another gallo for melo trade.

On top of it he acts like he is the man. Just annoying. All that swagger backed up by nothing, he reminds me of the Jersey Shore guidos.

fishmike wrote:

Vmart wrote:

fishmike wrote:he's 22 and still figuring it out. He's got a lot of talent but clearly he's inconsistant.

This team needs a center. Not Melo, not Gallo to pick up his game.

You are 100% wrong on this. The Knicks need Melo's consistency very badly. As for a Center yes that is needed too but only after Melo is added.

I'm 100% wrong? We got outrebounded by 15 last night. How does Melo fix that? We cant stop players in the post, how does Melo fix that? We are the #1 scoring team in the NBA.

Sorry.. I'm a 100% right. If Chandler isnt dropping 25 then Gallo is picking up the slack. Consistant scoring isnt the problem. Defending the post and rebounding is. Keep telling yourself different maybe you will start to believe it

100% agree. Our problem is not offense. It is defense and rebounding. Melo does not fix this.

Paladin55 wrote:Assume that the Orlando game was a major factor inspiring this thread.

I thought the Orlando game revealed more about the way the team played than about Gallinari, and for that matter, Fields.

The lack of shots taken by those two guys says more about team chemistry and our PGs than anything else, IMO.

Look at Felton's line- 6/22, 1/7, and 6 assists and 6 turnovers. Gallinari and Fields, the two "glue" guys on the team get 8 shots between them in about 70 minutes on the floor. The lack of shots for those two guys is as much on Felton as themselves not wanting to score for some strange reason.

How does Williams get more open looks than Gallinari in the Orlando game? Is it because Orlando is not respecting his outside shot? It is because he does more than what Gallo will do at times- i.e. stand in a corner and wait for an open shot? In fact, Wiliams got more open shots in that game than Gallo and Fields combined, but really did nothing different in terms of trying to get open- it was just a matter of his teammates getting him the ball when he was open. I watch Williams a lot, and he does nothing special to get open, but he seemed to get the ball in a great position to shoot a lot of times the other day.

Another funny thing is that Gallinari, I think twice, actually did what Felton is supposed to do- he drove to the basket, drew in defenders, and kicked it out for open jump shots (I think they were misses, unfortunately).

I would like to see Gallo do more for himself, but I don't think he is the kind of player who is going to force the issue in this system. I would also like to see MDA run some plays from him off a high screen, and see what he can do as a driver or distributor.

The 3 guys who took the most shots in our starting lineup are also the guys who are more willing to go 1/1, but even Chandler had more open looks for 3s than Gallinari did.

Whose fault is it that Gallinari is not getting the open 3s that he is paid to hit? Maybe players have lost confidence in his shot, because it has been inconsistent, but there was a moment when Gallo started hitting shots in the Heat game and then he was seemingly forgotten the rest of the game. I rarely see others on the team set picks for him. He has a little routine with Amare that he seems to do once a game, but to be honest, it leaves him with a step back attempt at a 3, which is hardly a high % shot IMO.

You look at the Orlando stats- 8 players had 8 or more shots, with Howard taking 19- you look at the Knicks and you had 3 players who had more than 19 shots, including your PG.

Folks like to over-simplify things and find easiest way to analyze things, but this is still a team sport, and the Gallo/Fields stat line tells me more about the team chemistry for that game than it does about the two players who took a total of 8 shots combined.

Very good analysis and I agree 100%. Everybody blame Gallo that he does not get more aggressive. He is aggressive when he gets the ball as evidence to the number of times he goes to the line. His opportunities is just not there. For some reason, Felton seem to have been infected by what infected Dudu these past couple of weeks. He really needs to setup the whole team and not just Amare, himself and The Mayor.

I also posted in another thread how Gallo penetrated and dished where his teammates just missed their shots. These were all open shots. He created but people are mad he did not dunk over people. Weird.

TMS wrote:

excellent post & i agree w/everything u said, but as i think even u will agree, there are legitimate concerns when it comes to Gallo's upside potential, especially w/the way this team is utilizing him & his apparent willingness to defer to other teammates when it comes to shot taking... u can only be as good as your team allows u to be, but you also need to gain the trust of your teammates to go to you when the team needs someone to score, & so far this team has not shown that on a consistent basis anytime he has been here... we've seen it before... to his credit he has made a clear effort to be more aggressive taking the ball to the rack this season, but he needs to do more... he needs to raise the level of his consistency, not just in his shot making, but in his level of intensity & focus during games as well... sometimes it almost seems like his head isn't even into the game until halfway through the 3rd quarter, & that's simply not acceptable from a guy who we drafted to become a cornerstone of our franchise for the next decade or more.

I can't lie and say that I haven't screamed at the TV or computer screen while watching him play at times.

My biggest issues with him:

1) he was told to work on his game in the post- I have not seen any new shots or footwork. At times he plays like a 6'1" guard when trying to get a shot off in the post. He does not play like he is 6"10." A single new shot, like a jump hook, would have been a nice addition.

2) Shooting inconsistency- I still wonder if he has some kind of lingering arm injury, but the simple fact is that his 3 pt shooting % has gone down since his rookie year, and he seems to be more streakish than consistent. Is this the reason he is not looked for by teammates sometimes? Do they see an inconsistency in his shooting during their practice days which we don't see, and which translates into decisions made during actual games?

3) He really wants to be a team player first (anyone who doesn't see this in how he plays is not really watching him offensively or defensively), but he continues to defer to other players instead of being more aggressive and assertive, especially in terms of using the ball when he has it, and especially taking it to the basket when he recognizes that his outside shooting touch is off on a particular night. I think a lot of his inconsistency comes from his hesitation in this area, and what he sees as his role on the team.

With this said, I also have to say that at this point in Gallo's career (I'll thrown in Fields here, too.) his scoring stats are going to reflect, in many ways, the selflessness of his teammates, and 11/35 shooting by your PG with a significant decrease (30%+) in assists in your two recent losses, is not the selflessness that you want to see from your distributor in big games.