OKC Thunder: Danilo Gallinari puts everything on line for team
The younger doppleganger of Danilo Gallinari
Davis Bertans already elected to opt-out from participating with his Washington Wizards club who trail the Magic by 5.5 games and the Nets by 6.5 games. However, with the Nets roster looking more like a G-League squad due to all the players who won’t be participating the Wizards have a decent shot of getting within four games to elicit the play-in tournament for the eighth seed (likely against the Nets now since the Magic only trail the Nets by a half-game).
Bertans has a history of injuries having torn his ACL twice. The first ACL tear happened in 2013 while playing with Partizan Belgrade. The second tear occurred in 2015 while he was playing in the Spanish league with Baskonia.
The Latvian sniper will turn 28 on November 12th and didn’t want to risk getting hurt in Orlando and have it affect the next contract he will sign. Including this year the 3-point sniper will have four years of service in the NBA. His last contract was a two-year term for $14 million.
After spending three years in San Antonio, this was his first in Washington. As a Wizard his minutes took a huge leap and the offensive production followed suit.
Bertans is one of the role players due to draw decent money this offseason because every team can use a 3-point sniper who connects at 42.4 percent, can scrap for rebounds, and is a decent ball distributor for his size and position. The Wizards are keen to re-sign him as is Bertans to return.
| Season | G | MP | FGA | FG% | 3PA | 3P% | 2PA | 2P% | eFG% | FT | FTA | FT% | TRB | AST | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 67 | 12.1 | 3.5 | .440 | 2.6 | .399 | 0.9 | .557 | .588 | 0.4 | 0.5 | .824 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 4.5 |
| 2017-18 | 77 | 14.1 | 4.8 | .440 | 3.3 | .373 | 1.5 | .588 | .568 | 0.5 | 0.6 | .816 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 5.9 |
| 2018-19 | 76 | 21.5 | 6.0 | .450 | 4.4 | .429 | 1.5 | .513 | .610 | 0.7 | 0.8 | .883 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 8.0 |
| 2019-20 | 54 | 29.3 | 11.3 | .434 | 8.7 | .424 | 2.6 | .471 | .598 | 1.9 | 2.3 | .852 | 4.5 | 1.7 | 15.4 |
| Career | 274 | 18.6 | 6.1 | .441 | 4.5 | .411 | 1.6 | .526 | .594 | 0.8 | 1.0 | .849 | 2.8 | 1.1 | 8.0 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/4/2020.
While his perimeter efficiency is the most appealing part of his game what increased his value is the forward almost doubled his attempts from deep this season (8.7 per game) but produced almost identical efficiency to last season.
Whether his teammates take a different view of him putting his own personal financial future ahead of the team’s success is yet to be determined. Notably, Bradley Beal has still to commit to playing in Orlando so it might not be that big of a deal. After all, this is the Wizards we’re talking about – – a team that doesn’t exactly have a solid identity or culture in place.