Nunn can name every guard picked instead of him in 2018 draft. A Cavalier is on the list
Kendrick Nunn doesn’t have a physical, written-out list of all the guards taken in the 2018 NBA draft. He does feel confident, however, he can name everyone who was picked in the draft last year.
He remembers seeing names called while he waited at home to see if someone would take a flier on him. No one did, so Nunn spent almost all of his first season as a professional playing in the NBA G League before the Miami Heat signed him on the final day of the regular season last year. It’s easy for him to remember Collin Sexton was in the draft, taken No. 8 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers. All he could do was laugh — then cackle — when asked whether he likes to go up against the guard.
“Yeah, I do — most definitely,” Nunn admitted. “I don’t have to say much about that. When I get a chance to go up against those guys, I’m going to show up and give it all I got.
“I don’t have a written list, but I remember because I was watching that and I just remembered from the top of my head.”
After Nunn hit a rough patch just before All-Star Weekend, the rookie guard has gotten back on track in the two games since, continuing with a dominant performance against the Cavaliers on Saturday. Nunn led the Heat (36-20) with 24 points and eight assists on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range in a 124-105 rout at AmericanAirlines Arena. He’ll get another crack at Sexton and Cleveland (15-41) on Monday when Miami finishes a home-and-home series with the Cavaliers at 7 p.m. in Cleveland.
Nunn, who missed three games at the end of January because of soreness in his right Achilles tendon, struggled in the final seven games before the All-Star break when he returned from the injury, averaging just 9.9 points per game while shooting 29.8 percent from the field and 24.3 percent from three.
He starred in the Rising Stars Challenge in Chicago to kick off All-Star Weekend, then got a few days off the court. In two games since, Nunn is averaging 19 points, and is 12 of 30 from the field and 6 of 11 on three-pointers. Nunn had never played at such a high level for so long before and said the handful of days off during the break has him feeling refreshed.
“I did get a couple days off the court,” Nunn said. “Just taking care of my body, getting in, getting treatment, staying on top of that — maintenance.”
Nunn, who has positioned himself as an unlikely challenger for the NBA’s Rookie of the Year Award, is averaging 15.5 points per game this season, and shooting 44.4 percent from the floor and 34.9 percent from long range. He has hit some rough patches before — he had two four-game stretches earlier this season when he averaged fewer than 10 points per game, while shooting worse than 35 percent from the field and 25 percent or worse from deep — and come out of them before. Now he has done it again.
“Things like that happen. You don’t make 100 percent of your shots, so when you have games like that, you just have to be mentally tough and to stick with it and take the same shots you would take if you were hot, you know what I mean?” Nunn said. “The next shot was going to go in — that was my mentality about that stretch of games. I always believed the next shot was going to go in and not force anything.”
WADE ON ADEBAYO
Even on Dwyane Wade’s night, he was asked about the Heat’s new rising star Bam Adebayo.
Adebayo, who is in his third NBA season, is averaging career-highs in points (16), rebounds (10.4), assists (5), steals (1.3), blocks (1.2) and minutes (34.4). Adebayo, 22, also made his first All-Star Game this season.
“Right away, when I got back to Miami [in 2018], you could feel that he’s special,” Wade said of Adebayo following Saturday’s jersey-retirement ceremony. “He’s a special person. Basketball — the sky is the limit for him. We set a bar. My points and my assists were a bar that was set before me. It was set by Alonzo [Mourning], was set by Tim Hardaway. It was set by the greats before me. That’s all I’ve done. I just set a bar.”
Wade is the fifth Heat player to have his jersey retired, joining Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, Shaquille O’Neal and Chris Bosh. But Wade is the first player drafted by the Heat who has had his jersey retired by the organization.
It’s still very early in Adebayo’s career. But Adebayo, who was drafted by Miami with the 14th pick in 2017, looks like the Heat’s next homegrown star.
“I told Bam a couple weeks ago before he got announced to the All-Star Game,” Wade said, “‘Go take it. Go do it. Go set a bar for the next kid and for the next child. He may not even be born yet. But continue to set bars. Continue to help the generations become greater.’ That’s all I try to do. I try to set that bar.
“I hope one day, I’m here and I’m in this arena when all my records have been broken because that means that the generation behind is greater. That’s what you want. You want this world and individuals to continue to be greater. So, we don’t want to put that pressure on Bam right now. But he’s definitely somebody that we look at and say, Alonzo, UD, guys like that, you have that character and you have that opportunity to do something special within this organization that loves him.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 12:29 PM.
