Danilo Gallinari will still be out for the first few months of the NBA season due to ACL surgery, but the veteran forward made some positive strides Tuesday.
The Boston Celtics signed the 14th-year forward in the offseason in hopes to add wing depth as a backup to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. But Gallinari suffered a non-contact knee injury while playing for Team Italy at EuroBasket over the summer. The injury news was compounded with Robert Williams III also needing time to recover from his own knee injury.
But Gallinari hit the gym Tuesday and got up a corner 3-pointer. He posted the video on his Twitter, which can be seen below:
“First shot after injury … Same touch,” Gallinari wrote on Twitter.
Of course due to his knee injury, the forward did not jump while taking the shot, but it is still encouraging to Gallinari back in the gym and getting shots up.
The Celtics have gotten off to a strong start to the 2022-23 season, but Monday’s loss to the Chicago Bulls did raise some eyebrows, especially due to interim head coach Joe Mazzulla and Grant Williams getting ejected from the game.
But Tatum and Brown continue to pace Boston, and it should be fine to start the year, but if the Celtics hope to achieve their goal of an NBA title, it will need Gallinari and Robert Williams back at full strength.
