If Danilo Gallinari Truly Doesn't Care About A Contract I Have Just The Team For Him To Join

Advertisement

It's no secret that the Oklahoma City Thunder are about to smash that rebuild button. Sure they had a nice surprise season this year and CP3 proved he still has some gas left in the tank, but after moving on from Billy Donovan it's only a matter of time before they trade Paul and probably Steven Adams if possible for even more assets and jump start this master rebuild.

Which brings us to Danilo Gallinari. He's a UFA this summer and you have to think that he's not looking to be part of a rebuild in his age 32-33 season and beyond. The thing is, Gallo is still very productive and can absolutely help the right situation

There's an issue though. Gallo is used to making a lottttt of money. Like over $20M a year. Unless Anthony Davis opts out, Gallo is arguably the best free agent option right now on the market. I'd rather have him than someone like DeRozan (who has to turn down his player option). So chances are he's not going to play for peanuts. 

But you know who loves hearing that quote? My man Danny Ainge. A guy that needs to improve his roster but doesn't have any money to do so. Let's see if Gallo is willing to back up that claim and play for whatever type of contract works for the Celts salary cap. He'd also have to be cool with probably coming off the bench (if Hayward opts in) which he's basically never done in his career outside of his rookie season but hey you never know. In terms of a skillset he's exactly what I would want the Celts to add. He has good size, he can play the four or the small ball 5, he stretches the floor, and he would be a legit scoring option when this team needs to go to the second unit. 

I fully understand this is a pipe dream and has a 0.000000000001% chance of actually happening. I get that there could be other options for him to sign a team friendly deal with, but if he's talking about contending for championships, as a team that made the Final 4 the Celts technically qualify. I also wasn't the one who said that contracts didn't matter at this stage of Gallo's career. He did. Well I can think of the perfect opportunity for him to back that up. 

Advertisement

I'll admit, I can't wait to hear about how the Celts were THIS close to bring in Gallo only for things to fall apart at the last second. We'll hear all about it the second Gallo signs with a different contender. It's the Danny Ainge way.