Denver Nuggets power forward Danilo Gallinari (L) makes a move on Portland Trailblazers' Al-Farouq Aminu. (Photo : Getty Images)
Another NBA trade rumor buzzing around recently is a potential deal involving arguably the Denver Nuggets' best player, Danilo Gallinari, moving to the Washington Wizards as the capital city team reportedly tries to improve their frontcourt depth.
As of now, the Wizards' starters at the 4 and 5 are Kris Humphries and Marcin Gortat with Drew Gooden and Nenê as their primary backups.
Head coach Randy Wittman reportedly wants a faster and more outside shooting-oriented lineup to complement their stellar backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal and so rumors of acquiring a stretch four became abuzz.
Gallinari is said to be one of the prime candidates in Wittman's mind and a Fansided article mentioned him as one of five "potential power forward targets" by the Wiz before the trade deadline this season.
There is one problem, though: Gallo is playing superbly and comfortably right now under Nuggets coach Mike Malone that there is no way the team would let him go. At least, that's what it looks like today.
The Denver Nuggets tried a slight rebuild in the offseason by dealing away Ty Lawson to the Houston Rockets and Arron Afflalo to the Portland Trail Blazers, who eventually landed with the New York Knicks, but they kept veterans Gallo and Kenneth Faried, who allegedly is also one of the team's trade chips, for the moment.
All indications suggest that Gallinari and Faried will be in Malone's plan for the long term, but if things do not go according to plan, speculations have it that the team will let go one or both of them before the February deadline passes.
An article by SB Nation in August said that Gallinari may be the team's "best player" or "greatest trade chip" depending on how he and the Nuggets perform this season. If they are good, then he stays, if they go bad then Denver might go "into a full rebuild" around top seven pick Emmanuel Mudiay starting this season.
At the moment, the Nuggets are at the bottom third of the Western Conference standings with a losing record of 3-4. It is still too early to say whether they are underperforming or not in just seven games into the new season and so a few more weeks or maybe a month could be needed before Malone and general manager Tim Connelly make shocking moves that they feel would be necessary moving forward.
