Danilo Gallinari‘s injury-riddled season has been the Clippers’ biggest issue, coach Doc Rivers told Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register and other media members. Gallinari hasn’t played since February 22nd and has only appeared in 19 games. He was acquired in a deal with the Nuggets last summer with the expectation that he’d solidify the small forward spot. “Overall, of the guys we’ve missed [most], it’s ‘Gallo,’” Rivers said. “It’s not even close.” Hand and gluteus maximus injuries have sidelined Gallinari, who has averaged 15.9 PPG when he’s been able to take the court.
In other news around the Pacific Division:
- Kings guard Iman Shumpert will likely opt in to the final year of his contract, according to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. Shumpert has a $11MM player option but has only appeared in 14 games this season due to knee and foot injuries, which would depress his value on the open market, Jones opines. He is unlikely to play again this season since the Kings are evaluating their younger players, Jones adds. Shumpert is recovering from plantar fasciitis. Shumpert was part of the multi-team trade that sent George Hill to the Cavaliers at the February deadline.
- The Lakers considered tossing veteran forward Luol Deng into the rotation because of injuries but ultimately decided against it, Bill Oram of the Orange County Register reports. Deng has been in limbo all season, getting benched since a 13-minute appearance on opening night. Deng signed a four-year, $72MM free agent contract two summers ago will probably be waived this offseason under the stretch provision, allowing the Lakers to spread his remaining $36MM cap hit over five seasons.
- Suns forwards Marquese Chriss and Jared Dudley were fined $25K apiece by the league for an dustup against the Jazz last week, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports tweets.
Iman Shumpert has the best agent in professional sports.
Shump will be fresh & dynamic in 18/19 after so much downtime.
But does Sacto even want players in their prime? And he’s not been a mentor type like they like.
It’s absolutely moronic that the Lakers can’t even give garbage minutes to Deng
Chill dude, deng still has 36 million coming. That’s moronic!
It’s mind blowing that they never tried to use him correctly, and kept playing him at the 3, and then answered that by not using him at all…you’d think they’d at least have attempted to get something out of him. He didn’t just magically disappear that quickly. He already proved he couldn’t play the 3 as well previously, and then was awesome at the 4/5 before signing that contract.
Do you have to play someone that you don’t want?