Danilo Gallinari tweets heartfelt message to Thunder and its fans

Despite the tough ending to their season, Gallinari has nothing but love for the Thunder and its fans.

The Thunder’s 2019-20 season may have ended earlier than the club would have wanted, but there’s no denying that it was an inspiring campaign that the franchise hopes is indicative of a brighter future.

In the near future, though, the club will have a decision to make on Billy Donovan’s — whose contract is up — and Chris Paul, whose future with the team is probably being contemplated. Aside from those two, however, is an important free agency decision to be made on Danilo Gallinari.

Gallinari received some positive press for accompanying his teammates into the bubble. He could have opted out and, at 32 years old, nobody would have blamed him.

The Italian sharpshooter just completed the final year of a three-year, $65 million contract he signed with the Denver Nuggets back in 2017. After the long layoff, however, many opined that the risk of injury to a player Gallinari’s age would be great. Nonetheless, he put it on the line and competed hard for his team. According to a message he posted to his Twitter account after the team lost Game 7 against the Rockets on Wednesday, he has no regrets.

“We fought ’til the end in a very hard season. No one believed in us except our fantastic team, city and organization and we earned the playoffs. An unlucky ending doesn’t wash out a wonderful 12 months journey,” he tweeted.

At 32 years old, Gallinari is coming off of a very productive season with the Thunder, scoring 18.7 points per game and connecting on 40.5% of his three-point looks. With the league’s teams continuing to value the three-point shot highly, a player with his size should continue to prove valuable on the open market.

There’s no guarantee that the Thunder will look to re-sign Gallo, but if this past season and his reflection of it are any indication as to whether he would be interested in returning to Oklahoma City, it stands to reason that he’d at least be open to the possibility.