Danilo Gallinari seeks to return to All-Star level form

Before missing all of last season with a knee injury, it was 2013 and Danilo Gallinari was averaging 16.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game and was looking like one of the young studs of the NBA.

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Since then, the Nuggets have fired George Carl and hired Brian Shaw. After a long rehab, the 26-year-old Gallinari will suit up for his first season under Shaw.

He told NBA.com’s Jeff Caplan that he felt he was snubbed from the NBA All-Star game in 2013, and hopes to return to form this season.

"“I was playing very well,” Gallinari said. “I thought at that point right before the All-Star Game, I should have been called for the All-Star Game […] because we were one of the best teams in the league, and so I think you have to call, you have to call somebody from the Nuggets to represent a great franchise and a franchise that was doing very good. I thought that me and Ty Lawson, we were the two that could have, should have been called for the All-Star game. So I thought I was right at that level, and so my goal is to get back at that level, if not better.”"

Gallinari also told Caplan that he isn’t quite at the level yet because he hasn’t played in a long time, but he is close to fully participating in training camp next week.

Partly because the Nuggets were so bad last season, and also because he hasn’t played in a while, it can be hard to remember how well Gallinari was playing before his injury. Besides averaging nearly 16 and 5, he was shooting the three-ball at a 37.3 percent clip, was contributing 2.5 assists and nearly one steal a game while emerging as one of the better two-way players in the league.

If he can back to his 2013 form, Gallinari should be in the running for Comeback Player of the Year, and will help Shaw immensely.

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