Saturday,
June 28, 2008
Danilo Gallinari, 19 yr old from Milan,
The
ANNOTICO Report
Danilo Gallinari's hometown is Sant'Angelo
Lodigiano,
Gallinari is considered the most
talented player in
Despite
playing on an underwhelming team It's becoming
increasingly usual to see Danilo Gallinari
producing almost at will regardless of who he goes up against. His skill
repertoire, knowledge of the game and physical gifts propose a devastating
equation that hardly anybody can consistently contest. Just consider that he
lived in the 20+ point mark for five games in a row, combining both the Euroleague and the Italian Lega.
The run includes a defeat against the Israeli powerhouse Maccabi
Elite Tel Aviv, where Gallinari carried his team's
offensive load with 27 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals, and the comfortable
victory over Scavolini Spar Pesaro, that only
required him to spend 26 minutes on court, but was still enough to come up with
20 points and 6 rebounds.His superb slashing ability
was responsible of much of the damage he caused on his opponents, both in the
form of layups/dunks and forced fouls that sent him to the stripe multiple
times. &nbs p;
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Danilo-Gallinari-535/
Other
Italians like Manu Ginobli has starred with the Phoenix Suns,
although picked at #57 in 1999, Andrea
Bargnani was the #1 pick of the
Toronto Rapters in 2007, but despite his outstanding
play, the Rapter fans are only tepid. Marco Belinelli
drafted #18 by the San Francisco Warriors in
2007 has had limited playing time. Kobe
Bryant is Honorary Italian, as his Father played in the Italian
League after his NBA career, and
Gallinari Set for Pressure of
Playing in
The Associated Press
Friday, June 27, 2008
Especially since
he wore the same number as a giant of Italian hoops - who now happens to
be his coach.
Gallinari proved to be worthy of
wearing Mike D'Antoni's No. 8 back home, and hopes to
win over the fans that jeered him on draft night when he dons a Knicks jersey
with the same number next season.
"I think it
is two different worlds," the 19-year-old Gallinari
said Friday at the Knicks' training center. "There is a lot of pressure in
And
not an easy one.
Fans at the draft booed loudly when the Knicks took Gallinari
on Thursday with the No. 6 pick, and that was nothing compared to what he'll
hear if he doesn't produce right away next season.
"I think Danilo and I and Mike understand that he's going to have to
answer all those questions by how he plays, and understand that he's a young
player like all the other rookies and it'll be gradually better," Knicks
president Donnie Walsh said.
Walsh said he got
a strong recommendation from former coach Isiah
Thomas after a European scouting trip, citing Gallinari's
poise in crunch time at such a young age.
"Basically
at the end of games, they gave him the ball and he made the plays," Walsh
said. "For a guy that's that big, that's unusual."
Playing under D'Antoni should help Gallinari
adjust to the NBA. D'Antoni was a star player and
championship-winning coach in
"He played
so many years in Europe and
Gallinari doesn't know D'Antoni well, but certainly knows of him. And when he
showed up in
"Some
pressure about that," Gallinari said.
Unlike Kobe
Bryant, who used to wear No. 8 in honor of D'Antoni, Gallinari's choice of the number had nothing to do with his
new coach. He picked it for his birth date - Aug. 8, 1988.
The Knicks
believe Gallinari will be a good fit in D'Antoni's system because of his outside shooting ability.
Listed at 6-foot-8, though Walsh said he's closer to 6-10, Gallinari
shot 40 percent from 3-point range last season for Armani Jeans of Milan,
averaging 17.5 points in Italian A-1 League play.
D'Antoni's offense depends on having
shooters at every position, and Walsh recognized the Knicks didn't. Perhaps
when he bulks up, Gallinari can be used as a
perimeter-shooting power forward, the way Shawn Marion was under D'Antoni in
Gallinari and Walsh both said a
doctor told them the forward could grow another inch, perhaps making him as big
a threat on the interior as he is from the outside.
"And he's a
very, very good shooter," Walsh said. "So I think the combination
of being able to take it to the goal and then shoot from the outside, for a guy
that big I think is going to be a pretty lethal combination once he gets
the strength and all that."
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