Julyan

Stone

Miller is one of the game’s all-time ironmen, but even he can’t play through a separation in his shooting shoulder. His timetable will depend on the degree of separation. Meanwhile, Ty Lawson is going to see all of the minutes he can handle and Julyan Stone will slide into the backup role.

This left undrafted rookie Julyan Stone (five points, three rebounds, two assists, two blocks, 18 minutes) to run the point in a close game against the Wolves, and needless to say it was a bad maneuver no matter how bad the reffing was (it was bad). Miller still finished with five points, six boards, and 12 assists, and is a must-start player for however long Lawson is out.

Anderson played 19 minutes in the Nuggets’ loss. Koufos (23 minutes, six fouls) had seven points with three rebounds and three blocks, Faried (18 minutes, four fouls) had six points, eight boards, and a block, and Stone (21 minutes) had two points on 1-of-5 shooting with four rebounds and a block. Each of them are worth a look as desperation plays to some degree if the Nuggets remain banged up.

Arron Afflalo (ankle) is out, but coach George Karl wants to keep his normal rotation intact. Therefore, Rudy Fernandez and Andre Miller will still come off the bench. We wouldn’t expect much more than 12-18 minutes and limited production for Stone, an undrafted rookie out of UTEP.

Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Stone has been “in demand” and the Nuggets beat out the Knicks, Pacers and more teams for his services. Stone is 6'5", plays solid defense and has intriguing offensive potential, but he’s not going to have fantasy relevance this year.

Denver has seven games in the next 11 days so he’s up to strengthen the depth of the bench.

Standing at 6'7" out of UTEP he is an interesting prospect due to his size, athleticism, and shot-making ability, but his range is a problem. Dynasty league owners will want to file the name away in case the Nuggets found themselves a keeper.

The disturbing part of this story is Afflalo started alongside guys like Julyan Stone and Chris Andersen, who combined to score two points, while Al Harrington and Rudy Fernandez each had 17 off the bench. With Gallinari out for a month, don’t let this game scare you away from Afflalo, especially since he’s still starting and got 34 minutes tonight. At some point, his shots are going to start falling.

Stone gets a chance to start with Danilo Gallinari (ankle) out indefinitely, but that’s simply because George Karl prefers having Rudy Fernandez come off the bench. Stone is not in line for big minutes despite the starting role, and should remain on waivers in most leagues.

Stone had yet to make into a game this season for the Nuggets and will have an uphill climb to make it back onto Denver’s roster.