The Denver Nuggets are dealing with a lot of injuries at the moment especially in the frontcourt. Despite some of the injuries the Nuggets have started off pretty well as they are 2-2 and have had a couple of convincing victories. With the injuries mounting up to the big guys though the Nuggets decided they needed some depth so they will reportedly bring back Kostas Papanikolaou, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Papanikolaou was briefly a member of the Nuggets after he was acquired in the trade that sent Ty Lawson to the Houston Rockets but Denver waived him at the end of September in order to save some cap room. To make room for the 6 foot-8 Greek forward the Nuggets have waived Erick Green who they were really impressed with in training camp and early this season but they are pretty set at the guard spots right now. Green had appeared in just three regular season games up to this point and saw a total of seven minutes.
Papanikolaou was a rookie last season with the Rockets and appeared in just 43 games including one start. In that time he averaged 18.5 minutes per game and scored 4.2 points while adding 2.7 rebounds. The 25 year olds shooting percentages weren't great a season ago (35 percent from the field and 29 percent from three) but he is a player with some upside and NBA people think he could turn out to be a nice role player.
Papanikolaou likely will not come in and play major minutes but with so many injuries he may see some time. Wilson Chandler is still reportedly about a week away, Jusuf Nurkic may be out until December and Nikola Jokic and Joffrey Lauvergne are both currently dealing with back injuries. In Denver's last game against the Los Angeles Lakers they only had three healthy big guys and Kenneth Faried was forced to play 40 minutes.
J.J. Hickson, who was previously out of the rotation, started that game and was actually very productive but Darrell Arthur was the only big available off the bench. With the current lack of depth in big men and their extensive depth on the wings Papanikolaou would likely play his minutes as a stretch four.
