Suitors begin to line up for Nuggets’ Danilo Gallinari

On Friday, Danilo Gallinari will decline his $16.1 million player option for the 2017-18 season, something he’s reportedly planned on doing for quite some time, and enter unrestricted free agency for the first time in his eight-year career.

Gallinari, who averaged 18.2 points across 63 games last season on some of the best shooting numbers of his career, will likely have a number of suitors come 12:01 a.m. ET on July 1. The Los Angeles Clippers, who according to Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times, are interested, and you have to figure that teams like the Rockets, Heat, Nets, Knicks, Celtics and other big-market franchises will call for his services as well if they can create enough cap space.

After trading Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets earlier this week, the Clippers are reportedly focused on retaining Blake Griffin and will meet with the power forward on Friday. Los Angeles will have to maneuver some pieces around to gain enough cap space to bring on Gallinari or another of their rumored targets, but with Jerry West entrenched in LA and looking to make an imprint on the organization, anything is possible.

Nuggets’ color commentator Scott Hastings has said on a number of occasions on Altitude Radio that Gallinari’s camp is looking for a contract ranging from $20-25 million per year — that’s further than Denver should extend itself for 28-year-old.

The Nuggets should tread lightly when it comes to doling out money for the swingman. When Gallinari’s great, he’s great. The wing can score from anywhere on the floor, can get to the line whenever he pleases and carry the load on the offensive end when called upon. But health has been an issue in the past with Gallinari and he’s only played in 289 of a possible 410 regular season games over the past five seasons.

If Gallinari wants to continue his career in Denver on a tradeable, team-friendly contract, the Nuggets should entertain the thought of re-upping their longest-tenured player. If he’s looking for a substantial payday, Denver should move on. From Gallinari’s most recent comments, it appears that the Nuggets, despite the fact that they can offer more money and years than other potential suitors, aren’t the leaders in the clubhouse to retain his services.

Could those comments signal Gallinari valuing fit and lifestyle over money? We’ll see in the next week or so.

Once the clock strikes midnight on July 1, Denver will reportedly turn their attention towards a number of power forwards including Paul Millsap and Griffin. The Phoenix Suns, who reportedly have interest and meetings scheduled with both forwards this weekend, dangled their No. 4 pick in June’s draft in search of a big man and look to be back on that train again. They’re likely one of Denver’s biggest rivals in attracting one of those top-tier free agents.

The Nuggets could also revisit the reported conversations that took place around draft time about Kevin Love. The proposed trade, which reportedly would have sent Paul George to Cleveland, Love to Denver, Kenneth Faried to the Cavs and other assets including draft picks from the Nuggets to the Pacers, could still be enticing for Cleveland who with George, match up much better with the Golden State Warriors.

Denver will be aggressive, as they always are in free agency, but it’s still to be determined if they can land the big name that they’ve been trying to reel in for the past few seasons.