For those of you that have a tough time taking your emotions out of your evaluations look at it this way. If he never improves another skill, he has already proven that he is a 13-17 point scorer in the NBA that will give you smart ball, ball movement and solid off the ball defense. NOw imagine if his skills do develop and he does get stronger. Is that worth the 6 pick? We shall see. This guy has as much potential to make an impact as anyone picked after him in that draft.

Cosmic wrote:

With all the criticism of his lack of movement and consistency. All the talk of him camping out on the three point line. All the talk of him not being aggressive on a consistent basis. It's all true.

Lack of movement and consistency goes back to the back problems that some are in complete denial about (his supporters at that!)

Camping out at the three... well I've seen him post and cut plenty of times. I think half of this is on the offense schemes and half is on Danilo himself, and for the hell of it, another half is on his teammates ignoring him at times.

Not being aggressive, again, partly the back problems, partly his team ignoring him.

Larry Hughes was on a mission to turn Gallo into a star last night. The rest of the team needs to take notes. Gallo is our go-to guy like it or not.

It could be the back problem. I'm not going to speculate. Either way he still isn't as aggressive as he needs to be. But what we forget is that most 20 point scorers don't come into the league that way. They must develop. He is developing. He will learn to be more aggressive. Coaches and teammates must learn to trust him more. He must learn to take over. He must learn to beat his man off the dribble and in the post. It's all things he must learn. He's already shown the ability to do it inconsistently. He must get stronger. And if he's hurt, he must get healthy(remember he did have back surgery a short time ago. You don't heal 100% overnight and we should not expect him to. This injury still could go either way). The jury is still out on whetehr he can do it everynight. But the ability is DEFINITELY THERE. If your assessment is that he has no ability to be anymore than a career Kapono then you either aren't watching or you are analyzing his skills based on how you feel about Walsh/D'Antoni and the KNicks past fortunes.

Summary: No matter how you look at it, this is essentially his first year. He will be up and down because of it. He will lack essential skills and strenghts right now. But the man has some real potential.

Bippity10 wrote:ONe last thing about Gallinari. Forget the post ups and the drives. If he ever develops a pull up 15 footer off the dribble. It's over

he have this now. just not use enough. the question with gallo is a question of comfort. early in season, he establish what he most comfortable with-- his strongest skill, his three point shooting. now he build off that, slowly expand. helloooo people? only 18 games in, he get comfortable. by end of season, my prediction: he pulling up, draining mid range j's, posting up a bit, and still drilling treys.

i think is crazy he lead league in 3s made. he on pace to be all time leader! oh yea bebbyy oh yeaaa.

Bip - good call on the screens and movement, I too have noticed it. You are probably right that MDA wants to see the consistency in practice first. Or maybe he is just feeling better right now. The kid has a high BBall IQ, so I find it hard to believe he is stationary because he thinks it is the right play. Either the coach wants him to do it or it is all he can do.

fishmike wrote:guy is shooting 44% from downtown. Its Allan Houston Reggie Miller like. If he gets 10 open looks he should shoot every time. Maybe those numbers tail off but he showed his range last night and that extends WELL past the 3 point line.

Allan's a good comparison, except Gallo will be more versatile. I think he can actually shoot as well as Allan. It's interesting that Allan's father was a coach and Gallo's father was a player.

orangeblobman wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:ONe last thing about Gallinari. Forget the post ups and the drives. If he ever develops a pull up 15 footer off the dribble. It's over

he have this now. just not use enough. the question with gallo is a question of comfort. early in season, he establish what he most comfortable with-- his strongest skill, his three point shooting. now he build off that, slowly expand. helloooo people? only 18 games in, he get comfortable. by end of season, my prediction: he pulling up, draining mid range j's, posting up a bit, and still drilling treys.

i think is crazy he lead league in 3s made. he on pace to be all time leader! oh yea bebbyy oh yeaaa.

Part of developing a skill is actually using it and making it in games. Until he does, isn't he still developing? In summary, he may have a pull-up. If he does, I'm sure it looks great in practice. But in games thus far he has not used it, therefore he is still developing it. Yeeesh.

Douglas is stuck in the rotation behind some veterans who wont be here next year but I dont think anyone can argue this guy is a player and someone we can go to war with. Great job scouting him out and buying the late first rounder. If this type of player and draft day deal is something we can expect in the future you have to feel good.

Jordan Hill: He has shown flashes but is obviously raw. The jury is out. Not taking Jennings seems to the biggest knock, although Jennings has not played very well at all lately

nixluva wrote:I think both of you are right. Bip I think Blob means he has that shot in his bag but just has to feel more comfortable in games using all his skills. Gallo seems to have an aggression problem. He has to get in the right mental mind frame to be more successful using his entire game. As you say he's still workin on the other facets of his game but I think he does already have that skill.

After reading it again, I can see what he is saying. I am looking at it from a coaches perspective. To a coach the mental is as important as the physical when it comes to development. You may have all the skills in the world, but until you do it on the court we as coaches still need to develop it. In that summer league game way back when I remember pointing out that if this guy ever figures out how open he really is off the dribble, or learns to use his body he is going to be extremely hard to guard. If you really pay attention when he takes those one or two dribbles and picks up the ball, he is as open as Dirk is. He has either created space because he's quicker then the big guy guarding him. Or he's so much taller then the 6-6 guy that teams are running out at him that he should be able to get that shot off no problem. If you watch Dirk(Allan Houston/Paul Pierce/Michael Jordan are other great examples) he is great at subtly bumping little guys just enough to knock them off balance and get that shot off.

I have no doubt that in practice Gallo is a great pull-up shooter. We've seen it sometimes in games as well. But overall this is a weak point for him. Shorter, stronger guys can body him up and get underneath him and take this shot away from him. So he may have developed the ability to take and make this shot, but he has not fully developed the tricks and skills to get it off consistently.

That's all I'm saying.

nixluva wrote:Yeah he could use a few more power moves for a guy his size he should be at the line a lot more. One thing I hated and loved about Miller was how he used his long arms and gangly body to draw fouls. Gallo has a ton of potential tho!!!

Can u imagine how good he'll be with a great passer? You just know Donnie is gonna do whatever to pry Rubio away from Kahn! We'll be able to put together a really good trade once we have the cap space. I believe Donnie will find a way to get that done.

If he continues to develop and we can finally get a PG in here, the gloom and doom in NY will go away.