SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Danilo Gallinari shakes his head early on while discussing his current state. He feels good overall. There’s no knee soreness from ACL surgery and the accompanying rehab.
But he’s not himself.
“If I had to make a comparison from when I left the game (in 2013), I’m not there yet,” Gallinari said Wednesday.
Gallinari did say he’s “close” to being where he needs to be from a physical standpoint. He’s not as explosive as he needs to be, not as quick as he wants to be. And in the game of inches sometimes that determines whether shooters (such as Gallinari) get a shot off or even attempt one before the defense converges on them, those things are necessities.
Then on top of that frustration, Gallinari has dealt with a shooting slump to start the season. Going into Wednesday’s game against the Sacramento Kings, he had averaged just 4.7 points on 20 percent shooting from the field.
Nuggets coach Brian Shaw removed him from the starting lineup in an attempt, he said, to get Gallo jump-started by playing against other team’s second units — especially with the starting opposing small forward Wednesday being Rudy Gay. Friday it will be LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Gallinari pledges to fight through it.
“It’s not good, but if you have to look at the positive side it’s good to let it out now,” Gallinari said. “If at the end of the season it gets better, I’ll take that over shooting good at the beginning and not shooting good towards the end of the season.
“I think it’s going to be a process. I think for everybody it’s going to be a process. It’s really the first time that we are playing with each other, so it’s going to take a little bit to build the chemistry.”
