As you likely have already heard, Danilo Gallinari will likely miss up to four weeks with a sprained ankle. On the bright side, the injury could have been a lot worse, as a bone chip was found upon examination. Luckily for Gallo, it stemmed from an old injury and should cause a longer recovery time.
The Nuggets will be without their top scorer for the next month, which will present the team with a brutal stretch of games. Fortunately, Arron Afflalo should be back Wednesday and Nene is a game time decision, so that will provide a bit more depth for Denver. For the Nuggets to be successful without Gallo, those are two key guys who need to step up.
Afflalo has been pretty bad from an offensive standpoint this year. He shooting percentage is merely 41%, down from his career average of 46%. Defensively, Afflalo has been solid per usual. With the absence of Gallinari, however, the Nuggets need more form Afflalo. They need the guy they sorely missed in the playoffs last year, the player who was so reliable from deep. Afflalo has been battling injury for much of the season, so hopefully he can put that behind him and regain the momentum he had last season.
Nene this season has shown flashes of the dominant big man he can be, but he needs to be more aggressive and go strong to the basket more often. I see no reason he shouldn't be able to average anywhere from 15 to 18 points a game. 50% shooting from Nene is too low. He has been taking more mid-range jumpers this season than in years past and it's showing up in the form of his low shooting percentage. I know Nene has it in him to thunder the ball down in the paint. Nene needs to get mean in the paint and show no mercy to his defenders.
The prime candidate to replace Gallo in my opinion should be Corey Brewer. Brewer has been active and plays with a ton of energy every time he steps on the court. I think because of that, though, George Karl will prefer to have him come off the bench and start Afflalo at the 3 and go with Ty Lawson and either Andre Miller or start Julyan Stone as he did against the Rockets. Again, I think what Andre provides off the bench benefits the Nuggets greatly, but Karl has that history of not playing rookies. It will be interesting to see how the rotation going forward shakes out. Having multiple candidates to replace a starter is a problem I bet a number of teams wouldn't mind having, and is a testament to the depth that the Nuggets have on this roster.
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