Paladin55 wrote:

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.

i think that is a fair point u raise, but again, there seems to be a pattern of mistrust when it comes to going to Gallo at times from his teammates... this has been the pattern w/him since he's been here... whether that is due to actual lack of trust in his shooting efficiency, or perhaps some feelings of resentment towards him for being teacher's pet, or just blind luck & coincidence (which i think is highly unlikely when we've seen it happen w/other teammates that are no longer here in the past w/Gallo), something needs to change in Gallo's game or approach so that he becomes a more featured part of this offense, otherwise he'll never be anything more than a role player.