Arron

Afflalo

Afflalo is one of many players that have worked out for Houston while they’ve held a minicamp in Las Vegas this week. Afflalo did not play in the NBA last year. His last action in the league came back in 2017-18 with Orlando.

In addition to Delaney, who last played in the NBA during the 2017-18 season with the Hawks, Jodie Meeks, Arron Afflalo and DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell are also participating in the workout. Golden State currently has 13 players under guaranteed contracts for the 2019-20 season but that figure does not include Alfonzo McKinnie, who is a candidate to begin the season as a starter.

In KAT’s previous three seasons he didn’t miss a single game, but this will be the fourth missed game of his 2018-19 campaign and head coach Ryan Saunders didn’t seem optimistic about Towns being able to get out there for Wednesday’s regular-season finale. Gorgui Dieng will be getting the start tonight sans Towns, while Andrew Wiggins will be operating with a hefty usage, and both those guys make sense as DFS targets.

Also in attendance was Haywood Highsmith, who plays for the Sixers’ G League affiliate Delaware Blue Coats. Even if Philly does sign one of these guys, they’ll be nowhere near fantasy value.

Particularly with the return of Wilson Chandler, things were about to get crowded in Denver. Should Miller miss any time, it would certainly help ease the minute crunch.

Afflalo did well to produce with Andre Miller (shoulder) and Danilo Gallinari (broken non-shooting thumb) leaving early. If the Nuggets ever make to it to full-health, however, he’ll have a hard time providing consistent value.

“I don’t know how long it’s going to be. It’s not going to be short. It’s a fracture. Hopefully I can put something on and play sooner than that,” said Gallinari after relaying the information. This is obviously not the news that owners wanted to hear, and while you may want to wait until there is a more definitive report, dropping him might be a necessity for teams at this time of year. All of the usual suspects benefit from this news, as well as Andre Miller’s shoulder injury.

Afflalo has been on a tear providing early-to-mid round value over the past two weeks, but owners shouldn’t get too comfortable with Danilo Gallinari returning as soon as Monday.

The minutes are interesting and it’s fair to wonder if there was a setback, with conditioning being the likely culprit. Even if he was just scaled back because he was struggling, Gallo has looked great so far in his return and should remain in starting lineups until further notice unless we learn of an injury. Ty Lawson scored nine points with three rebounds, four assists, and three steals, and Arron Afflalo added 18 points with four boards and four assists in the loss.

Afflalo averaged just 5.5 points in his previous two games, but prior to that he’d scored 20+ in three straight.