Getty Italy's Danilo Gallinari looks for a pass past France's Nicolas Batum.
Danilo Gallinari was the Boston Celtics‘ marquee free agent addition. The Celtics snagged him up using the taxpayer midlevel exception after Gallinari was waived by the San Antonio Spurs. Gallinari is a career 38 percent shooter from three and is known for his abilities as a scorer, which could have come in handy when the Celtics were battling the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals.
Gallinari has had a pretty busy summer. Besides being traded by the Atlanta Hawks, waived by the Spurs, and eventually signed by the Celtics, Gallinari’s currently playing for the National Italian Basketball team in the Eurobasket tournament. Gallinari recently posted a clip of him scoring an and-1 layup over three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and former Celtic Guerschon Yabusele.
Positive vibes in Bologna. Let’s keep working..💪🇮🇹
Gallinari’s layup in traffic catalyzed much excitement among Celtics fans. Many were excited knowing that a scorer like him was going to be coming off the bench.
Others declared that the Celtics were winners of the offseason now that, even as the reigning NBA Eastern Conference champions, they added Gallinari to the mix.
While some think adding Gallinari makes Boston an offseason winner, others think Gallinari coming to Boston makes him an offseason winner.
Gallinari Declared an Offseason Winner
Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report wrote an article detailing who on the Celtics were among the biggest winners and losers of the offseason. Gallinari was listed as a winner because of how much better his situation is and how much he could stand to benefit from playing with the other Celtics players.
In a little under two weeks, he’d gone from a decent Eastern Conference team to a Western Conference bottom-feeder and finally to the Eastern Conference champs. Not bad, right?
It gets better. In Boston, he might find even more open looks being able to play off the likes of Brogdon, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown. Not to mention, the Celtics have the quality and quantity of stoppers needed to mask Gallinari’s defensive limitations.
It doesn’t get much better than going from a team ousted in the first round to a team that was two wins away from a championship. Gallinari will also be paid handsomely to do so. His partial guarantee was upped from $5 million to $13 million when he was traded to San Antonio, according to Bobby Marks.
Danilo Gallinari has been waived by the Spurs, sources tell ESPN. Friday was the last day for Gallinari to be waived before his $21.5M contract would have become guaranteed. His guaranteed amount was amended from $5M to $13M as part of the trade to San Antonio.
The Celtics will be paying him $6,479,000 on top of that, according to Spotrac, so Gallinari will be paid $19,479,000 during the 2022-23 season.
However, it appears Gallinari’s main goal at this point goes beyond being paid as much as possible.
Gallinari’s Goal is to Win a Ring
While talking with Sky Sport on August 8, 2022, Gallinari made it clear why he chose Boston over other suitors – he wants a championship.
“The goal is the ring with Boston, despite the 14 years I have played in the United States, I am still excited for this new chapter of my career,” he told Sky Sport, which was translated by Basket News.