Reports of the death of the Nuggets are greatly exaggerated
“The Nuggets happen to have the bulk of their depth at forward. It’s a bit over the top to say that the Nuggets won’t miss Gallo, but it’s accurate to point out that the Nuggets are better positioned to proceed without him than they are any of their other top players.”
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Danilo Gallinari still doesn’t know precisely how bad the damage is to his left knee. What he does know is that it buckled gruesomely and that it’s in terrible pain. What we all know is that he’s done for the season. That much we could all see when he was carried off the court late in the second quarter of last nights tilt with the Mavericks at Pepsi Center.
The Denver Nuggets will be forced to proceed without one of their best players. Gallo has improved his shooting percentage to around 40% and was nailing over a third of his threes. He was showing great improvement cementing his value in Denver’s offense. That’s why the reaction of many Nuggets fans and analysts has been to declare the season over.
Not so fast.
The fact that it is Gallinari that will be unavailable and not a player at another position should be seen as a bit of a break for the Nuggets. Both Wilson Chandler and Corey Brewer have demonstrated the ability to substitute proficiently for Gallo. The Nuggets happen to have the bulk of their depth at forward. It’s a bit over the top to say that the Nuggets won’t miss Gallo, but it’s accurate to point out that the Nuggets are better positioned to proceed without him than they are any of their other top players.
By the time the playoffs begin Ty Lawson should be back in the starting lineup. That’s far more important than the degree of severity of Gallo’s injury. Without Ty in the lineup the Nuggets are relegated to Andre Miller and Evan Fournier at point guard. As experienced as Miller is and as promising as Fournier is, the two of them together can’t make up for one missing Lawson.
Wilson Chandler and Corey Brewer together have the ability to disguise Gallinari’s absence. That’s not to say he’s not a very, very good player. He is. And he will be missed to a certain degree, but reports of the death of the Nuggets are greatly exaggerated.
By holding on to beat Dallas last night, Denver avoided a major blow. Had they lost they would have slipped to fifth place in the Western Conference right then and there. Instead, they remain in third place and have ample rest ahead before they play again. There’s no reason to believe that they can’t win at least half of their remaining six regular season games and finish with no worse than the fourth seed.
