Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari hurt his ankle in the team’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks last Friday, and head coach Michael Malone said it’s not looking good for the big Italian.
“He’s going to be out for awhile.” Malone said Sunday’s practice, “He compared it to his sprain earlier in the year where he missed two weeks (6 games), and he says its worse.”
Davide Chinellato of La Gazzetta reported that Gallinari told him he is expects to miss 3-4 weeks with the injury; however, that report has not been made official.
.@nuggets Danilo Gallinari told me he expects to remain out 3-4 weeks for his right ankle injury #NBA
— Davide Chinellato (@dchinellato) February 28, 2016
The Denver Nuggets currently have 23 games remaining in their season season, which puts his return in doubt. At exactly four weeks from the original injury, Gallo would be returning to the team with just 10 games left to play. At that point, is it even worth it?
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think he’s out for an extended period of time” said Malone “I feel bad for him; he was having a career year. Obviously, its always tough when you lose a player like Gallo for us. He gives us so many things.”
Coach Malone said it was unlikely that Gallinari would see any playing time in the team’s upcoming seven-game home stand.
“I’m not sure right now, to be very honest,” Malone said in reference as to who would take the helm with Gallinari’s absence. “We could go with Will, we could go with JaKarr, we could go with DA (Darrell Aurthur), we can really small, we can go really big, so we have some options.”
The Denver Nuggets’ seven-game home stand begins tomorrow as the Nuggets are set to welcome the Memphis Grizzlies into the Pepsi Center.
While this could have been an opportunity for the Nuggets to force themselves back into the playoff conversation with a stretch run, it’s starting to look more like Denver is headed back towards the lottery.