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After tearing his ACL in late August, Danilo Gallinari is expected to miss the entire season, leaving a hole in the Boston Celtics‘ frontcourt. While the Celtics have managed quite well without Gallinari, they could use some more frontcourt depth knowing Al Horford’s age and Robert Williams III’s injury history.
In a January 11 NBC Sports Boston story, Darren Hartwell named multiple players who the Celtics could potentially acquire mid-season. Among them was Mike Muscala of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who Hartwell described as a potential Gallinari replacement due to both his size and three-point shooting ability.
“Muscala’s stats don’t jump off the page, but he’s been pretty productive in limited action for OKC, averaging a career-high 20.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per 36 minutes for the Thunder last season. He’s a quality 3-point shooter (37.7 percent over 10 NBA seasons) and at 6-foot-10 would give the Celtics some of the height and floor-spacing they expected to have with Gallinari.”
Muscala briefly played for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019 and has played for the Thunder since then. Muscala is slated to make $3.5 million this season, so he could be absorbed into the $6.9 million Juancho Hernangomez TPE or the $5.9 million Dennis Schroder TPE. He also has a no-trade clause, so he can veto any trade the Thunder involve him in.
At 18-23, the Thunder aren’t too far out of a playoff spot, so they may very well not make any trades.
Insider Believes Gallinari Trade Could Be For the Best
Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports explained in a January 6 report why it might be in the Celtics’ best interest to trade Gallinari, despite how bad it could make them look if they did so.
“It might be somewhat cold to trade him as he rehabs without having never played a minute in a Celtics jersey. Alas, it goes back to the bottom line: The Celtics are on a quest for a title, and you have to use every asset available. Gallinari’s $6.5 million salary creates avenues for adding talent that might preserve a diminished draft stash and potentially keeps from adding to a stiff luxury tax bill,” Forsberg wrote.
Former Celtics’ President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge was not afraid of making trades that were perceived as cold, much as he did when he traded Isaiah Thomas to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Kyrie Irving. Stevens has only had the job for a year and a half. Trading Gallinari for someone who, at the very least, can play could help the Celtics, but it would be considered a pretty cold trade to make.
Gallinari Continues to Post Rehab Updates
Though Gallinari will likely miss the entire season, he has continued to post updates on his rehab throughout the season every chance he gets. In his latest update on January 9, Gallinari posted a video of him doing running exercises from one side of a basketball court to another with the caption, “First train your mind, then your body.”
His update before that, Gallinari revealed that he was running on the court for the first time since suffering the injury.
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