Joffrey

Lauvergne

The 22-year-old has enough athleticism and shooting range to make a dent whenever he jumps to the NBA, but he’s a long way from having fantasy relevance. We’ll keep an eye on him during the offseason, as the Nuggets hope to continue evaluating him during Summer League.

Adrian Wojnarowski reports the Nuggets will receive two future second round picks from the Thunder, while Lauvergne will join a crowded frontcourt in Oklahoma City. Lauvergne could have some value in deeper fantasy leagues, but he won’t have much value in standard leagues unless Steven Adams and/or Enes Kanter suffer an injury.

Lauvergne could hold some fantasy appeal if he were moved to another team, but there just aren’t enough minutes for him in Denver. As an aside, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports that the Nuggets have guaranteed Lauvergne’s deal for the 2016-17 season.

Adams tweaked his sprained right ankle during a game of 3-on-3 on Wednesday, so it’s not surprising to see him spending another night on the sidelines. Billy Donovan doesn’t believe that the injury is serious, and with almost two weeks to go before the regular season opener, Adams should have enough time to get himself ready for opening night. With Enes Kanter (knee) also on the sidelines on Thursday, Domantas Sabonis and Joffrey Lauvergne should see plenty of minutes.

We’ll go ahead and throw Lauvergne on the injury report for now, but it would be shocking to see this to turn into an issue that impacts his status for opening night. Lauvergne is going to be fighting for minutes with the likes of Enes Kanter, Domatas Sabonis and Ersan Ilyasova this season, so it’ll be extremely tough for him to earn enough minutes to make a difference in most settings.

King Joffrey is a very capable big, but his minutes will be limited while the Thunder are at full strength -- Steven Adams sat out tonight with a minor ankle issue. Ersan Ilyasova and Domantas Sabonis are getting the bulk of the minutes at the four and Adams and Enes Kanter will each have sizable roles, so Lauvergne could be the odd man out.

The rookie is essentially a placeholder starter and he’s done nothing to deserve a spot on standard fantasy rosters. Enes Kanter isn’t likely to start because of the spacing issues which would result, but it’s possible that Sabonis could eventually be displaced by Ersan Ilyasova (26 minutes) or Joffrey Lauvergne (eight minutes).

This actually wasn’t all garbage time with only 1.7 minutes coming in the fourth quarter. Lauvergne hasn’t been a factor for most of the season, so we’ll need to see him do it again.

Lauvergne is averaging just 5.4 points, 3.7 boards and not much else in 14.4 minutes per game this season, so his playing status is more or less irrelevant in fantasy hoops.

Steven Adams’ foul trouble resulted in more minutes for Lauvergne, who has yet to score double-digit points in consecutive games this season. He’s shooting the lights out lately but doesn’t get enough playing time to be worth adding in standard leagues.