The Celtics announced today that Danilo Gallinari has been diagnosed with a torn ACL in his left knee, contradicting the original diagnosis of a torn meniscus.
This significantly changes the prognosis for Gallinari, who was originally expected to return at some point in November. Now with the ACL injury, he will likely miss most, if not all of the upcoming season.
This puts the Celtics in a little bit of a bind because Gallinari was supposed to provide some depth and important shooting off the bench.
If he is indeed out for the season, the Celtics can apply for a disabled player exception, which was worth about half his salary so they can go out and sign a replacement. The Celtics also have a pair of traded player exceptions if they want to go that route. One of those exceptions is worth about $7 million while the other is worth just about $6 million. This will prove costly because they're already almost $20 million over the tax line. Using a TPE to add a player making $5 million will cost them more than $18 million in taxes.
In the short term, we can expect Grant Williams to pick up some of that slack and Sam Hauser to get some increased opportunity as a shooter off the bench.
This might also open the door for Noah Vonleh, who has the size but doesn’t have the shooting. However, if the C’s need a big body to spell Al Horford, Vonleh could fill a void left by Gallo’s injury.
It also could just add some emphasis to the small lineups with Malcolm Brogdon on the perimeter. They can slide Jaylen Brown to the 3 and Jayson Tatum to the 4 with Robert Williams at the 5 and give Al Horford breaks that way.
They also have Mfiondu Kabengele on his two-way deal, which allows him to play 50 regular season games. They could front load those appearances to help make up for Gallinari’s absence.