The Atlanta Hawks traded for Danilo Gallinari in the offseason with the OKC Thunder. The Thunder gave the sweet-shooting Italian the best deal they could and then traded him to the Hawks for two second-round picks in the 2025 draft.
Gallinari had an inauspicious start to his career as a Hawk, playing one game and three minutes of the second before injuring his ankle against the Brooklyn Nets. He would miss the next ten games with the injury and this coincided with the first Hawks losing streak for their season.
From his return, Gallinari was not really given a role on the team. He took more than 10 shots in one game and then was lucky to get four the next. When a player as good as Gallinari has not been given a defined role on the team, there is an issue higher up. Fortunately, the Hawks replaced Lloyd Pierce with Nate McMillan and we saw some change to his role.
Danilo Gallinari’s highlights and lowlights for the Atlanta Hawks this season.
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The lowest point for Gallinari’s season was the ankle injury. This cost him 10 games and a good chance as a new player to establish himself in the Hawks rotation. As a result, Pierce seemed unsure how to use him best.
The other lowlight for Gallinari was just prior to the All-Star break. In the game against the Thunder and the first game against the Miami Heat Gallinari could not make a 3-point shot. He went 0-of-10 over those two games and the Hawks lost both contests.
However, Gallinari’s highlights are at the total opposite end of the shooting spectrum. In the win against the Boston Celtics which was their third game against the club in eight days, Gallinari set an Atlanta Hawks record with ten made 3-point shots on his way to 38 points.
Then there was the last game before the break. Clint Capela was unavailable and coach Nate McMillan made the unorthodox move of starting Gallinari at center against All-Star Nikola Vucevic. The Hawks went down as many as 19 points but Gallinari was huge in the comeback, making five 3-points shots and entered the break with a two-game win streak.
The grade for Danilo Gallinari’s first half of the season for the Atlanta Hawks
Again it is difficult to grade Gallinari’s first half of the season. He missed an awful lot of games and also had a heap of really good games. His shooting from deep is down from where he would like it to be.
Grade: B