During a conversation with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson on Scoop B Radio, Danilo Gallinari reflected on the franchise-altering 2011 deal that sent Carmelo Anthony to New York and ended the Knicks’ rising young core.
Gallinari, selected sixth overall by the Knicks in 2008, said he and several former teammates still revisit the idea of what the roster could have become had the group remained intact.
“Well sometimes we talk about it or we meet about it with Amare, Raymond and other players who were there at that time and say if we would have stayed together we could have built something special,” Gallinari told Robinson.
The forward added that the unit had reached a strong rhythm under Mike D’Antoni’s fast-paced attack before the front office moved its assets for Anthony.
“Yeah, we had a very good chemistry going on,” Gallinari said. “Especially a few weeks before the trade, we were doing really well. But you know, that’s in the past now.”
New York had leaned on Amar’e Stoudemire as its featured scorer that season while Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton and others fit within D’Antoni’s spacing and ball-movement structure.
The trade to acquire Anthony cost the Knicks multiple rotation players along with draft picks, leaving a thinner foundation behind the All-Star forward.
New York finished 207-269 following Anthony’s arrival, advancing in only one of four postseason series during his tenure.
The franchise later fell out of the playoff picture altogether over the next four seasons, stretching the debate over whether the short-term push outweighed the long-term outlook.
Gallinari had already become one of the team’s most efficient perimeter threats, highlighted by his 30-point performance on Halloween in 2009 when he hit eight three-pointers and nearly matched the franchise record held by John Starks and Latrell Sprewell.
His development, paired with Chandler’s versatility and Felton’s early-season production, had created optimism that the roster was beginning to stabilize around Stoudemire.
Gallinari, who officially announced his retirement on Tuesday, leaves behind a career defined by efficient scoring and the persistent question of what the Knicks might have looked like had their high-upside group stayed intact.
