Nuggets coach Karl orders Italian — Gallo

Knowing that an NBA lockout could happen in July, Karl and his staff want to reach out to every Denver player before the league is frozen. Some assistant coaches caught up with international Nuggets Kosta Koufos and Timofey Mozgov in the U.S., but Karl and assistant John Welch will spend time with Gallo in Italy.

"We want them to understand where we want them," Karl said.

Do the Nuggets have a closer in their bullpen? An optimist would argue that Gallinari has the talent to be a top-notch NBA player. I'm not here to predict the future — and I'm not saying Gallo is the next Dirk Nowitzki — but I'm simply pointing out that Gallo has the makeup of a great player. He's a hard worker who likes contact. He yearns to get better. At 6-foot-10, he has Dirklike range. At the foul line, he has Dirklike touch.

And at age 22, he averaged 14.7 points in regular-season games with the Nuggets. He turns 23 on Aug. 8.

Karl was asked about his goals for Gallo this summer and for the next season, whenever that may be.

"He's going to get more responsibility," Karl said. "He's one of our guys with how we expand him into the responsibilities of our offense, it is going to be greater.

"For me, physically, the goal is to get him stronger. I would say he has a youthful body and I would like to see him have more of a physical body, a body that doesn't get injured. The stronger he gets, the better he will be in that situation."

"Really, we just want to energize him," Karl said. "We're excited about him. I want him to feel that, I want him to see that. And we'll get him excited about being here."