Danilo Gallinari Traded to Clippers, Jamal Crawford to Hawks in 3-Team Swap
The Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers and Atlanta Hawks announced the terms of a three-team trade Thursday that sent Danilo Gallinari to L.A., Jamal Crawford, Diamond Stone and a 2018 top-three protected first-round Clippers draft pick to Atlanta and a 2019 second-round pick from Atlanta (via the Washington Wizards) to the Nuggets.
Now that the deal is official, Denver can sign Paul Millsap to the three-year, $90 million deal the two sides agreed upon over the weekend, per The Vertical's Shams Charania.
Gallinari's desire to join the Clippers catalyzed the agreement. He met with Clippers brass over the weekend, who sold him on the team's ability to compete in the cutthroat Western Conference despite Chris Paul's departure for the Houston Rockets. The Clippers just agreed to bring back Blake Griffin on a five-year, $173 million deal, per Charania, and Gallinari fits in the 3 spot they've needed to fill for years.
Wojnarowski reported Gallinari pushed to make the deal happen despite interest from the Boston Celtics.
Gallinari, who turns 29 on Aug. 8, had opted out of his player option for the 2017-18 season. He spent the last five-plus seasons with the Nuggets, averaging 18.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game last year while shooting 38.9 percent from three-point range.
Denver thrived when Gallinari moved to the power forward slot next to Nikola Jokic. The Nuggets will look for an improved version of that setup next season with Millsap.
Crawford hopes to reach a buyout with the Hawks, according to Vivlamore, as they have begun a full-scale rebuild. He'll be on the radar for a number of contending teams and could potentially come on the cheap.
From the Clippers' standpoint, they're still going to have a hard time competing at the top of the West. Paul unlocked nearly everything they did offensively, and Gallo's arrival isn't going to solve their Griffin-Jordan spacing problems.
At the cost of another first-round pick, it appears Doc Rivers and Co. are hoping to stay in the increasingly difficult playoff race.
