FanHouse DaniloGallinari

It's safe to say that Danilo Gallinari would like to put his rookie year behind him. The Italian forward played only 28 games for the New York Knicks because of health issues and is looking forward to proving to everyone that the organization made the right choice when they drafted him sixth overall in the 2008 NBA Draft.

FanHouse spoke to Gallinari at the NBA Live 10 launch event on Tuesday about his health status and dealing with playing under the bright lights of the Big Apple. The video interview is below.

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FanHouse previews a player to watch from each NBA team in advance of the 2009-10 season.

Recently, Mavericks analyst Wayne Winston celebrated the greatness of Danilo Gallinari in a conversation with TrueHoop's Henry Abbott. Winston noted that as a rookie The Rooster topped the league in effective field goal percentage. Actually, Gallinari finished 18th among players who saw at least as many minutes as he did, which is still impressive though obviously not unprecedented.

Gallinari's shooting was simply dead-eye with the Knicks last season. The Rooster shot a remarkable 58.3% (effective FG%) on jumpers, according to 82games.com. That is just unnaturally good. I mean, really really outstanding.

It's almost as if it could be ... too good to be true?

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Knicks have slowly climbed their way out of salary cap hell -- but all that got them is a season in NBA purgatory.

Instead of making moves toward actual improvement, the Knicks are blatantly looking past this season to next summer when they hope to strike it rich with the famed free agent class of 2010. But while Donnie Walsh's long-term strategy may eventually pay dividends, it offers little hope in the interim that the Knicks might rise above last year's fifth-place finish in the Atlantic.

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From his warm loud reception on draft night to his missing virtually the entire first half of the season with a back injury, Danilo Gallinari's rookie season has been fraught with disappointment. He hasn't looked half bad in the 28 games he's actually played, but unfortunately the Knicks revealed today that his season is likely over.

From the team's official statement: "Because Danilo has said his back is only 60 to 70 percent and thinks he has reached a plateau in his recovery, the team is reconsidering all treatment options, including surgery. Yesterday he saw a fourth surgeon in New York. Danilo has decided to travel to Italy to get additional opinions from Italian back specialists."

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.

* "No big deal. I'm going to have own private dunk contest at my house. Just me. I'll be the only one invited." -- Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

* "A while ago, back when Myspace was more like Facebook and less like Adultfriendfinder.com, I came across LaSalle Thompson's page in a random Pacers search. Assuming it was some sort of fan site, I sent a friend request. But instead of being accepted, I receive a not-at-all-friendly 'Who's this? Do I know you?'" -- Basketbawful.

The Knicks have a better record than we had any business asking for -- 4-3 after Tuesday's loss in San Antonio -- but rookie forward Danilo Gallinari hasn't been a part of it. Gallinari hasn't played since Halloween, and was inactivated for the Spurs game. Gallinari's back has been a problem since Summer League ... four months ago. Worried, Mike D'Antoni? Howard Beck of the New York Times finds out.

"I'm worried about it at this point," D'Antoni said. "We're just going to do what's best for him. He's 20 years old. We'd love for him to play in the next two or three weeks, we'd love for him to play in the next two or three months. But he's got to be 100 percent well."

The Knicks hope more rest and treatment will work, but after four months it seems that candle is burning low. A red-shirt season (for all purposes) isn't the worst thing in the world; Gallinari's young (20) and the Knicks aren't in a make-or-break season. But for a roster starved for talent, the loss of a potentially exciting and versatile piece has to be discouraging.

There's another interesting note regarding the deactivation of Gallinari: instead of dressing a healthy Stephon Marbury (who is traveling with the team), D'Antoni activated Eddy Curry ... who had been ruled out by the medical staff because of knee pain. D'Antoni is taking this Starbury situation very, very seriously.

Stephon Marbury may be a distraction at the Knicks' training camp, but perhaps he's a welcome distraction -- when you take a look at the rest of the roster, there are problems that a mere buyout can't solve.

Take, for instance, Eddy Curry. Despite knowing that he'd be running more than he's ever run in his life with Mike D'Antoni at the helm, he showed up to camp out of shape. And then, making matters worse, he's actually missed the first few days of camp after going viral -- and not in the good "Allan Houston on YouTube" kind of way.

He's been diagnosed with a bacterial infection that will keep him out of action until Thursday at the earliest. As D'Antoni pointed out, though, it may be a blessing in disguise:

"I heard he was throwing up and everything," D'Antoni said, "and that's a great way to lose weight."

Any sorority girl out there can tell you, D'Antoni speaks the truth. Unfortunately, not every ailment on the Knicks can be solved by a mere eating disorder.

Danilo Gallinari has been sidelined for months with a bulging disc in his back (a condition the Knicks previously tried to downplay as a "sore back") and is expected to miss not only all of training camp but also the entire preseason. Needless to say, any chance that the Rooster had to crack the rotation early in the year has officially been thrown out the window, providing even more fodder to a disgruntled fanbase that never wanted him in the first place.

In a bit of an understated line at the end of a story on Danilo Gallinari's condition (better than we thought last week), Howard Beck of the New York Times indicates Stephon Marbury will be on the open market in the next few weeks.

Most of the Knicks' top rotation players from last season have been scrimmaging at the team's training center. The group has included Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, David Lee, Nate Robinson, Jared Jeffries, Wilson Chandler and Zach Randolph, as well as the free-agent pickup Chris Duhon. The most notable absence has been Stephon Marbury, who is expected to be waived before the season.

The conventional wisdom on this has changed repeatedly since the end of last season. To be honest, I expected the buy-out to go down months ago. Nothing Marbury offers will make a lick of difference for the Knickerbockers, unless you're a dreamer who thinks NYK is playoff-bound. If healthy, Starbury probably brings more than either Chris Duhon or Nate Robinson. But that ignores Marbury's lack of recent health as well as his abnormally awful locker room impact.

The Walsh-D'Antoni no doubt would like a clean break from the Isiah Thomas era. Starbury is the most obvious flag remaining from the dark period. Cutting him loose seems like a no-brainer, finances be damned.

Knicks rookie Danilo Gallinari won't be coming into training camp at full speed, according to a report from Newsday's Alan Hahn (via Posting and Toasting). Gallinari sat out most of summer league with a sore back ... that is still bothering him, two months later. It knocked him out of play with the Italian national team in this month's qualifiers for Eurobasket '09.

Hahn says Gallinari just arrived to NYC this week. Camp begins in two weeks.

Of course, the concept of the injured rookie isn't new to the NBA, what with top-15 picks Greg Oden, Spencer Hawes and Rodney Stuckey all having had surgery before last season's opening tip. In comparison, back pain seems like a non-issue. Of course, back pain that has stuck around since July, dropping him from two competitions of middling import. And if I may get a bit philosophical, more than any other team the Knicks could use a fierce start, even if it means little in the end. The D'Antoni name can't mend wounds on its own.

Just the other day, I asked myself, "What do the Knicks need?" And of course the answer is "Another offensively shaky and underwhelming point guard!" Because you can never really have enough of those.

It is in that spirit that the Knicks today signed free agent point guard Chris Duhon to a two year, $6.5 million contract. The former Bull is expected to compete with Stephen Marbury for the starting point guard spot, according to the report by the New York Post today.

Duhon does have some potential. He scored 34 against Golden State this year (but then again, who didn't score against Golden State), and had 22 against Milwaukee. He also had a whole lot of the dreaded DNP-CDs. He's solid in some spots, brilliant occasionally, terrible in stretches, and mediocre a lot of the time. However, you have to wonder how much of that was the coaching in Chicago which was less than supportive of guard play. Compare that with D'Antoni's speed-first guard system, and this could turn out well.

The Magic were said to be heavily interested in Duhon as support for Jameer Nelson, but apparently their indecision on Duhon versus Keyon Dooling was enough to convince Duhon to head to New York, for what may have been less money. With Duhon off the books, it's likely that Dooling will resign with Orlando.

Chris Duhon, Jared Jeffries, Danilo Gallinari, and Zach Randolph. Let's get excited, Big Apple!