Lakers' Kendrick Nunn claims to be healthy heading into next season

After missing all of the 2021-22 NBA regular season due to a knee injury, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kendrick Nunn claims to be fully recovered and excited about the team's future, as he discussed in a recent conversation with Chris McGee of Spectrums SportsNet. Last month, Nunn picked up his $5.25M player option for the 2022-23 season.

“I feel 100 percent [recovered] to be honest,” Nunn said of his current health status. “Back to where I’m normally playing at a high level.”

“Last year was a learning process for me,” Nunn added. “I learned a lot, sitting on the sidelines just watching. The game slowed down a lot for me, I got to see things from a different perspective. I wasn’t expecting to sit out that long.”

After going undrafted out of Oakland in 2018, the 6-foot-2 guard eventually attracted the attention of the Miami Heat’s front office. Nunn signed with Miami in April 2019 but would not suit up for the franchise until the 2019-20 season. He was named to the 2020 All-Rookie First Team following a breakout Miami run. Nunn is averaging 15.0 PPG, 3.0 APG and 2.9 RPG across his 123 NBA contests, all with the Heat. He holds shooting splits of .458/.364/.881 shooting in 123 games.

When the Heat opted to pull Nunn’s $4.7M qualifying offer in the 2021 offseason, Nunn signed a two-year deal with the Lakers as an unrestricted free agent. Los Angeles envisioned him as a key bench scoring contributor for what it expected to be a contending team when he joined the Lakers last year, though after sitting out a season, and given his limitations as a defender, it is unclear how much of a contribution he will be able to make this year. 

The Lakers would go on to finish with a 33-49 record and the No. 11 seed in the Western Conference. The team could certainly use Nunn’s help, should he recover his old form. He is one of just six Los Angeles players set to earn more than the veteran’s minimum this year.

Nunn acknowledged that he has already been in contact with new Lakers head coach Darvin Ham.

 “I talked to him a bunch,” Nunn said. “[We] ran into each other a bunch of times with me working out and him coming in.”

When asked about what Lakers fans could expect following an uneven 2021-22 season that left the Lakers on the outside of the play-in window looking, Nunn seemed aware of the prior club’s issues.

“They should expect consistency,” Nunn said. “That’s my number one thing. Coming in, night in, night out, and being consistent on both ends of the floor.”