In the days leading up to the 2008 NBA Draft, NYKnicks.com will look at several of the top-rated players potentially available to teams with lottery picks. The Knicks, who hold the No. 6 overall pick, are among the teams with the opportunity to take advantage of a very deep draft class. We offer these profiles for fans to familiarize themselves with some of the biggest names in the draft. A player's inclusion in this series of articles is based purely on his rankings in the scouting services and mainstream media and does not necessarily reflect the Knicks organization's preferences for the June 26 Draft at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden.

We continue our series with a profile of Italy's Danilo Gallinari, a projected first-round pick, according to major scouting services and numerous publications.

Over the past two years, young Italian basketball stars have made a mark on the NBA Draft. In 2006, Andrea Bargnani became the first European to be drafted No. 1 overall, when he was selected by the Toronto Raptors. Last year, the Golden State Warriors chose highly regarded sharpshooter Marco Belinelli with the 18th selection in the first round.

As most scouts would tell it, Danilo Gallinari has the ability to be better than either one of those players.

Gallinari won the Euroleague's Rising Star award in 2007-08, an honor reserved for the best player under the age of 22 by averaging 14.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Currently playing for Armani Jeans Milano, he is averaging 17.5 points and 4.8 rebounds in the Italian league. As a teenager playing against men, Gallinari has dominated.

He has actually been on the NBA scouts' radar for years, because basketball is also in Gallinari’s blood. His father, Vittorio, played for Olimpia Milano of the Italian league in the late 1970s through the early 1980s, winning four Italian League championships and two Euroleague titles. One of Vittorio's teammates in Milan was new Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni.

While his father excelled on the defensive side of the ball, Danilo is more renowned for his offensive skills. Like many Europeans that have come into the NBA, he is considered to be a fundamentally sound player and is often compared to another European import, Croatian Toni Kukoc, in that he is a 6-foot-9, 210-pound small forward who knows how to run the team like a point guard.

Scouts say that with Gallinari's superb passing skills and high basketball IQ, an NBA team's offense might one day run through Gallinari, who is as equally adept at dishing off to his teammates as he is finishing by himself. He has known for having good range on his jumper, being a very adept ball-handler, and playing with great intensity -- often wearing his heart on his sleeve.

The younger Gallinari is a capable defender as well, able to guard all five positions on the court with s combination of size and strength. This reputation for versatility might help boost Gallinari's stock in the weeks leading up to the draft.

Some scouts worry about Gallinari's explosiveness and overall athleticism, as well as his rebounding. Nevertheless, he is said to have NBA-ready physical tools and is already producing at a high level in a men's pro league. That rapid adjustment to the elite level of European basketball suggests Gallinari might be able to adjust to the NBA faster than some of his North American counterparts.