Papanikolaou was waived by the Nuggets on Thursday, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports.
After serving as a fill-in starter for Danilo Gallinari (ankle) at small forward over a five-game stretch to close out December, Papanikolaou had assumed a bench role for the Nuggets' previous three games, and only appeared in two of those contests. Regardless of how he was been deployed in his 26 games with the Nuggets, Papanikolaou was rarely effective, averaging just 2.6 points while shooting 36.4 percent from the field. He may have to head back overseas before he gets another opportunity at the NBA level.