{"id":94073,"date":"2025-08-25T06:53:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/94073\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T06:53:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:53:06","slug":"former-45-million-nuggets-forward-angling-for-nba-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/94073\/","title":{"rendered":"Former $45 million Nuggets forward angling for NBA comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former $45 million Nuggets forward angling for NBA comeback<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a><\/p>\n

A former $45 million Denver Nuggets combo forward is reportedly open to an NBA return.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets may not need his services per se, but perhaps some NBA squad could take a flier on the 36-year-old sharpshooter<\/p>\n

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Danilo Gallinari may have been drafted by the New York Knicks and enjoyed a (marginally) more prolific scoring season on the L.A. Clippers, but he logged his longest sustained NBA run with the Nuggets.<\/p>\n

Would the NBA be Open to a Danilo Gallinari Return?<\/p>\n

Now, it appears Gallinari may not quite be done with the NBA, despite having hung up his sneakers after 2024.<\/p>\n

Per\u00a0Iacopo De Santis of Pianeta Basket, the 6-foot-10 vet may be contemplating a comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always hope so. If I were to return, it would be as a veteran, kind of like insurance for a franchise,\u201d Gallinari revealed. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t play much and would serve as a helpful presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Gallinari was one of the standout pieces returning to Denver in the three-team trade that sent 10-time All-Star combo forward Danilo Gallinari to the New York Knicks at the 2011 season deadline.<\/p>\n

MORE NEWS:New Nuggets star hoping to medal in EuroBasket \u2014 despite major disadvantage<\/a><\/p>\n

Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Anthony Carter, Renaldo Balkman, Shelden Williams and Raymond Felton all arrived from Denver.\u00a0The Minnesota Timberwolves flipped big man Kosta Koufos to the Knicks and a future second-round draft pick to the Nuggets, and the Knicks flipped center Timofey Mozgov, forward Wilson Chandler, one first-round pick and two second-rounders to Denver. The Knicks also shipped out Anthony Randolph, guard Corey Brewer and center Eddy Curry to the Timberwolves.<\/p>\n

Gallinari emerged as the standout return piece in the exchange. Just a year later, he inked a four-season, $42 million rookie scale contract extension, and followed that up with a $45.2 million extension in 2015. He eventually agreed to a three-season, $64.8 million deal with the Nuggets in a sign-and-trade with the L.A. Clippers.<\/p>\n

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Across a 14-year season with the Knicks, Nuggets, Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks from 2008-24 (he missed the entire 2013-14 and 2022-23 seasons with ACL injuries), the 37-year-old averaged\u00a014.9 points on .428\/.381\/.469 shooting splits, 4.7 boards, 1.9 dimes, and 0.7 swipes in 777 regular season bouts.<\/p>\n

Gallinari also technically was with the Boston Celtics, but he never suited up for them while recuperating from his ACL tear in 2022-23.<\/p>\n

He split the 2023-24 season between three clubs, posting a combined career-worst average of 5.7 points on .437\/.323\/.857 shooting splits, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.1 assists for the Wizards, Pistons and Bucks.<\/p>\n

This past season, Gallinari joined Puerto Rican squad the Vaqueros de Bayamon, earning a title and a Finals MVP for his efforts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s impossible, but I consider it very, very unlikely. The more time passes, the more complicated it seems,\u201d Gallinari revealed, per De Santis<\/a>. \u201cIn order to return to Milan, you have to be wanted. Even during my last years in the NBA, I thought about coming back to Milan. But again, to return, you have to be wanted. It\u2019s not like I wake up one morning, make a call and say, \u2018Hey guys, I\u2019m ready to come back, do you want me?\u2019 That\u2019s not how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE NEWS:Nuggets MVP Nikola Jokic’s Serbian teammate responds to EuroBasket expectations\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former $45 million Nuggets forward angling for NBA comeback originally appeared on The Sporting News A former $45…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[69591,7218,64,63,1664,27164,69593,34920,1662,7214,69587,69592,69586,4620,5665,590,1666,3906,5548,69589,85,69588,69594,7211,69590],"class_list":["post-94073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-anthony-randolph","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boston-celtics","tag-chauncey-billups","tag-corey-brewer","tag-danilo-gallinari","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-iacopo-de-santis","tag-kosta-koufos","tag-l-a-clippers","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-raymond-felton","tag-sports","tag-timofey-mozgov","tag-vaqueros-de-bayamon","tag-washington-wizards","tag-wilson-chandler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}