Gallo could be out for a while

[The Rebel]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14856732/danilo-gallinari-denver-nuggets-undergo-mri-ankle

[eathb_au]

Oh well. Good for the tank.

[RRFB]

Poor Gallo. He's finally been healthy and he's had a career a year. I was just thinking last week that he was due for a big injury.

At least it'll be good for our pick and probably a good test to see how good this young core is on their own.

[nayyyyyyyyo09]

Well if Malone is gonna be as stubborn as before when Harris was injured and Barton didn't start then I think we should start Jakarr and have him help us with our defense

[NuggetsWY]

The only player on the team without a proper backup. Love Barton but against some SF, he's not big enough. Arthur at SF? Faried? Is it time to play Nurkic & Jokic & Lauvergne together - bleah, that would not be good. Mike Miller is the best bet but he's not going to be able to play a lot of minutes. OK, Miller-Barton-Sampson plus Barton has to play some SG too. This is not going to go well.

[skywalker33]

Well, I'll leave the SF starter position up to Malone, that's his job. I have tried to defend Gallo's status as being injury prone, but perhaps it's time come to that realization. However, that could make it easier to see Gallo as a potential man off the bench candidate if we can find a proper replacement, perhaps in this next draft or free agent market.

[nayyyyyyyyo09]

Well here's a good question, is it alright if we trade picks and maybe a player to move up to the first pick for Simmons? Because I'd rather go all in on a prospect if we're looking to replace gallo at all in the upcoming years.

[Riko]

Oh well. Good for the tank.

With Gallo's injury Denver is pretty much settle with the six pick.

Well, I'll leave the SF starter position up to Malone, that's his job. I have tried to defend Gallo's status as being injury prone, but perhaps it's time come to that realization. However, that could make it easier to see Gallo as a potential man off the bench candidate if we can find a proper replacement, perhaps in this next draft or free agent market.

Simply he can't play more than 30 minutes per game in regular season. During the years in NY they force him to build up muscle and his body doesn't support all that weight. He's Ok for 1-2 months but after that he starting to crack.

[Powder Blue]

Well here's a good question, is it alright if we trade picks and maybe a player to move up to the first pick for Simmons? Because I'd rather go all in on a prospect if we're looking to replace gallo at all in the upcoming years.

Whoever wins the lottery is going to prefer Simmons over any package we could offer...

I'll go ahead and say any slim hope at the playoffs is gone now. Also if Gallo is out till the end of March I highly doubt he comes back at all thus closing the chapter on yet another disappointing Nuggets season.

[iMoreland]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/704539877967314944[/tweet]

[StunnaStan]

Well here's a good question, is it alright if we trade picks and maybe a player to move up to the first pick for Simmons? Because I'd rather go all in on a prospect if we're looking to replace gallo at all in the upcoming years.

I always said that until Denver commits to a full tank instead of a midseason post-23 win tank, they'll keep doing the same thing every year. The talent you need is in the top 3 picks not after that. Sooner or later, yall need to bite the bullet and blow this team up. Even when the nugs r healthy, are you a clear cut better team than utah or Portland? The 57 win season long gone. Team already peaked. Face reality

[tstrick33]

The Sixers had a similar strategy and the NBA was forced to hire help for them. Can you name one team that fully tanking worked for?

We're rebuilding and yeah, it's not fun for the casual fan because they want instant success or blow everything up and draft Lebron. Unfortunately young players need to develop but if you follow the Nuggets closely you'll realize how good of a situation we are in right now.

Our core of Jokic, Mudiay, Nurkic, Harris and Joffrey is very good. If we are going to trade Gallo/Faried it's going to be in a deal where we see a star coming back.

[TunaFish]

Injuries happen. Isn't that how the Spurs got Tim Duncan?

[U hova]

Well here's a good question, is it alright if we trade picks and maybe a player to move up to the first pick for Simmons? Because I'd rather go all in on a prospect if we're looking to replace gallo at all in the upcoming years.

I always said that until Denver commits to a full tank instead of a midseason post-23 win tank, they'll keep doing the same thing every year. The talent you need is in the top 3 picks not after that. Sooner or later, yall need to bite the bullet and blow this team up. Even when the nugs r healthy, are you a clear cut better team than utah or Portland? The 57 win season long gone. Team already peaked. Face reality

To put this in perspective:

2015: The top 3 picks were KAT, Russell, Okafor
of which only 1 guy looks to be a significant game changer
2014: The top 3 picks were Wiggins, Parker, Embiid
the jury is out but there are many that believe Wiggins is insanely overrated and Embiid's situation should speak for itself
notable that the Nuggets drafted Nurkic, Jokic, and Harris this year who are by far our best assets looking forward and Jokic is easily the best player in the draft.
2013: The top 3 picks were Bennett, Oladipo, Otto Porter Jr.
Note that arguably the best player in this draft went 27th overall
2012: The top 3 picks were Davis, MKG, Beal
This is by far the only year where all 3 of the top 3 picks were actually marginally worth being terrible for an year. And even then, with lottery picks like Lillard and Drummond, it's hard to say tanking for the top 3 was the best choice
2011: The top 3 picks were Kyrie, Derrick Williams, Enes Kanter
Another year where, save 1 player, the tank did not pay off while more disciplined teams picked up Leonard, Thompson, etc.
and so on and so forth.

To be quite blunt I think you're the one who needs to face reality. Tanking from the start of the season doesn't guarantee a high impact player and sets back a franchise numerous years in terms of building a foundation to lure FAs in.

The Nuggets at full health may not be better than Utah or Portland, but you are either blatantly trolling or incredibly daft to the fact that this Nuggets core is 3 something years younger than the latter 2 franchises and has been competing at a similar level with significant injuries that forced terrible rotations with Foye and Lauvergne playing out of position.

Also who bandwagons the Pistons and then makes spiteful posts about another team for being irrelevant without a top 3 pick

[NuggetsWY]

Remember too, that trading half or more of our core young players for a star would leave the star playing with a gutted team that won't do anything, so why should the star stay? Patience and wait until we have a better concept of our young players and can trade value for value without gutting the team.

[skywalker33]

We all know that Gallo's season is over, but I wonder if that torn ligament story was 'concocted' as part of a tank for the rest of the season. Yes, I love me some conspiracy stories.......

[TunaFish]

Malone said in his presser after the Wizards game that he believed the Nuggets can overcome a six game deficit in the seventeen games remaining. That seems like a stretch but Malone is pushing this to his team. This Nuggets team is getting better even without Gallo, to my surprise. This next stretch of away games will tell us whether we have such a chance. I don't know if Dallas or Houston can hang in there or not or if Utah is suddenly going on a win streak or not. At least it will be interesting.

I also don't know if Gallo will be coming back or not this season. A high lottery pick via the Knicks would be nice with the Nuggets charging into the playoffs on the last day of the season.

[NuggetsWY]

We all know that Gallo's season is over, but I wonder if that torn ligament story was 'concocted' as part of a tank for the rest of the season. Yes, I love me some conspiracy stories.......

and here I was, respecting you and you come up with this --- of course the way the Nuggets keep everything secret, you might be right - Gallinari is feeling tired and beaten up and the team isn't going to make the playoffs, so why not give him the rest of the season off just to let him heal completely? I get it. I wonder if he's in Italy trying to recruit some undrafted players out of their league?

[RRFB]

Anyone else notice how smooth the offense has been without Gallo? Of course we're missing his ability to get to the line, but ball movement has been so fluid lately. I was not expecting that at all. I've been firmly against trading him for a long time, but now I'm having second thoughts. They've literally been able to plug a couple of d-leaguers in his place and the team hasn't missed a beat.

[skywalker33]

TC & Josh have to be noting that as well, Malone has done a good job w/o Gallo.