When the Denver Nuggets take the floor Wednesday night against the Dallas Mavericks, they will be without its top scorer, small forward Danilo Gallinari. And the word from the Denver Post is that they could be without him for a month.

Gallinari went down with an ankle sprain Monday night during a 99-90 loss to the Houston Rockets.

“Four weeks if it can be faster, it’s better, but with these kind of things, you want to take your time and have it heal in the right way,” said Gallinari, according to the paper.

The 23-year-old Italian native who came over to the Nuggets in the trade with the New York Knicks for Carmelo Anthony is averaging 17 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game. He recently signed a four-year, $42 million contract with the team.

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The Denver Nuggets take on the Memphis Grizzlies Tuesday night and the team may have to do it without its centerpiece player, point guard Ty Lawson. He’s missed the last two games due to a sprained ankle that he suffered in Wednesday’s win over the Sacramento Kings.

“When we don’t have Ty, the versatility of the team, the confidence that comes with being short one of your best players, it’s not how you lose the game, it’s the confidence you don’t have all the time,” Nuggets coach George Karl said Sunday after his team ended a six-game winning streak with a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, according to the Denver Post.

The ankle injury to Lawson, who is averaging 15.7 points and 6.5 assists per game this year, is getting better, the Post notes, but “during pregame warm-ups Sunday, he couldn’t cut the way he needed to” and it won’t be known if he can play Tuesday until he tests the ankle in pregame warm-ups.

“It felt a little bit better moving back and forth today,” Lawson said Monday, according to the Post. “So it definitely will be a game-time decision. It’s just the cutting thing. … I can jump and do everything else. But just cutting back and forth, playing defense and stuff like that, that would have been tough (against the Clippers).”

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Now that Kenyon Martin’s contract has been bought out by his Chinese team, Xinjiang, he is headed back to the U.S., but he won’t be able to actually play in the NBA till mid-March when the Chinese Basketball Association season is over.

The New York Post reports that a source is saying that it is “possible” that the Knicks would want to sign Martin, who averaged 8.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game for the Denver Nuggets last season, and that Martin “would be amenable to joining the Knicks.”

It all, of course, depends on how things go for the New York Knicks, who have a lot of expectations on them now that they have a frontcourt made up of Tyson Chandler, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Carmelo Anthony to start off the season.

On Thursday, the team claimed 26-year-old Steve Novak off waivers. In his five seasons in the NBA, he has shot 41 percent from three-point range. He’ll make $1.1 million.

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Now that Kenyon Martin’s contract has been bought out by his Chinese team, Xinjiang, he is headed back to the U.S., but he won’t be able to actually play in the NBA till mid-March when the Chinese Basketball Association season is over.

The New York Post reports that a source is saying that it is “possible” that the Knicks would want to sign Martin, who averaged 8.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game for the Denver Nuggets last season, and that Martin “would be amenable to joining the Knicks.”

It all, of course, depends on how things go for the New York Knicks, who have a lot of expectations on them now that they have a frontcourt made up of Tyson Chandler, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Carmelo Anthony to start off the season.

On Thursday, the team claimed 26-year-old Steve Novak off waivers. In his five seasons in the NBA, he has shot 41 percent from three-point range. He’ll make $1.1 million.

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When NBA players signed deals with Chinese teams during the lockout, the agreement was for the whole season no matter if the NBA figured out its labor situation or not. Player agents knew that and some steered their clients clear of signing onto such deals.

However, a few signed on, including Kenyon Martin. And now it appears that his team, the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, is considering allowing him to ditch out of his deal in China in order to head back to North America. Sources to ESPN say “that only the threat of serious sanctions from Chinese league officials for releasing a player of Martin’s stature in-season, including the potential forfeiture of games, has stopped Xinjiang from making the move already.”

The site hears that Flying Tigers are so “frustrated with the team’s slow start” that it is considering releasing Martin and seeing just how much trouble it gets into with the CBA. If that were to happen, it could open the door for other NBA players in China, such as Wilson Chandler, J.R. Smith, and Aaron Brooks, to make the same move.

Last season, Martin averaged 8.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game for the Denver Nuggets.

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Free agent swingman DeShawn Stevenson helped the Dallas Mavericks to the team’s first NBA title last season. He may end up back in Dallas now that Rudy Fernandez and Corey Brewer have been traded to the Denver Nuggets and some salary-cap space has been opened, according to ESPN Dallas.

However, Stevenson would have to take a big pay cut. He made $4.1 million last year and would have to sign for the veteran’s minimum, which the site notes is less than a third of his previous salary.

Stevenson’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, claims that his client has multiple offers and that a decision would likely happen soon.

The 30-year-old Stevenson, a first-round pick in the 2000 draft out of high school, averaged 5.3 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.1 assists last year. He started nearly every game of the playoffs and spent his time in the Finals mostly defending LeBron James, though he also scored 11 points in Game 4.

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The Denver Nuggets are still hoping that Nene will end up back in the Mile High City, the Denver Post reports, and are waiting out the slimming market for him.

The 6-11 Brazilian center was about to get an offer from the Houston Rockets to be a power forward next to Pau Gasol, but then the three-way trade that would have brought Gasol to Houston was denied by the league, and the Rockets extended an offer sheet to Marc Gasol rather than Nene.

The New Jersey Nets are waiting to see what happens with Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard before making any move on Nene, the Post notes.

Both the Golden State Warriors and Indiana Pacers have either tried to sign other big men (DeAndre Jordan) or actually done so (David West) without making an offer to Nene, the Post reports.

“In short, it’s looking as though Nene is a backup plan or complementary piece for all his suitors except the Nuggets, who haven’t replaced him and remain interested in making him their starting power forward, where he would play beside young center Timofey Mozgov,” who came over to the Nuggets when Carmelo Anthony was dealt to the New York Knicks.

Before the lockout, the Nuggets offered Nene a four-year, $50 million contract, the Post notes.

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Now without the services of retired 7-6 center Yao Ming, Rockets coach Kevin McHale and GM Daryl Morey will meet with the 6-11 Brazilian in Denver on Monday, a source tells the Houston Chronicle. Nene, who has played for the Denver Nuggets since 2002, was a trade target of the Rockets last season, the paper notes.

The Chronicle reports that Morey is also in discussions with the rep for free-agent center Tyson Chandler as well.

The New Jersey Nets are “expected to meet” with Nene this week as well, according to the New York Post. League sources tell the paper that the Nets “have been among the most aggressive suitors for Nene.”

Where do you think he’ll end up?

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“I learned last season that this was a business,” Nene told Spears. “No matter how nice you are to people, no matter how nice people are to you, this is a business. I did my best for the team and they waited and waited to extend me. I was like, Oh, OK, all these years playing good, doing your best and they still test you.’ That’s not about family, love and somebody liking you. It’s a business.”

According to Spears, before the lockout occurred this summer, the Nuggets offered the 6-11 Brazilian a four-year, $50 million contract extension, which he would have taken during the season but “felt disrespected because the Nuggets waited so long.”

So he’s opting to be a free agent and wants to sign with a team that is likely to contend for a title, Spears notes. And there should be plenty of folks interested in signing the man who averaged 14.5 points, 7.6 rebounds and one blocked shot per game last season.

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The new rule isn’t freaking out Denver Nuggets free agent guard J.R. Smith. Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the freshly minted 26-year-old “is nearing an agreement on the richest contract in China Basketball Association history.”

Wojnarowski reports that “Smith would make more than $3 million to play the 2011-12 season with Shanxi, but lose his chance at unrestricted free agency prior to the start of the NBA season.”

Smith was drafted in the first round of the 2004 draft by the New Orleans Hornets out of high school. Last season, he averaged 12.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists for the Nuggets.

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