The Nuggets recently agreed upon a contract renegotiation and extension with forward Wilson Chandler, and now the team intends to open talks regarding an extension with Danilo Gallinari, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post reports. Gallinari is entering the final year of his contract, during which he is scheduled to earn $11,559,225, and the Italian will be eligible to become an unrestricted free agent after the completion of the 2015/16 campaign.
With the Nuggets currently over the salary cap, any extension would likely need to be structured to kick in at the start of the 2016/17 season, similar to what Kenneth Faried did a year ago with his four-year, $50MM extension, Dempsey notes. Going this route wouldn’t allow Gallinari the sort of raise that Chandler got in his renegotiation. A straight extension would limit Gallinari to a starting salary of no more than 7.5% of what he’s making this season, with raises of no more than 7.5% for the life of the extension. The extension can also carry no longer than three years from the end of his current deal.
Gallinari has struggled with injuries throughout his career, and he has only appeared in more than 60 games in just three of his six NBA seasons. The 26-year-old only made it onto the court 59 times during the 2014/15 campaign, notching averages of 12.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.4 assists, with a slash line of .401/.355/.895. His career marks since being the No. 6 overall pick back in the 2008 NBA Draft are 14.2 PPG, 4.5 RPG, and 1.8 APG.
Nuggets fans, is he worth the extension? Do you think he will ever have an injury-free season again?