Miami Heat: Kendrick Nunn the underrated X-factor in team’s resurgence
The Miami Heat are back! After starting off the year in an elongated slump, they’ve now returned to form.
With that though, let me ask you something?
Do you all still remember that time when Kendrick Nunn put up a 40-point performance during a preseason game against James Harden and the Houston Rockets… circa 2019? People thought it was a fluke, but then Erik Spoelstra decided to let him stay in a starting role when the regular season began.
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The Miami Heat’s resurgence coincided with Kendrick Nunn’s resurgence and that’s no coincidence.
Nunn proceeded to turn in a surprisingly-good debut season that put him in the running for the Rookie of the Year award. Even though it kind of flamed out at the end of the season and in the first three rounds of the playoffs, where he saw a measly amount of playing time, Nunn has already proven that the regular part of last regular season was the truth and that he is, indeed, an up-and-coming star in the NBA.
One thing that has been overlooked in Nunn’s game though is how well he can bounce back from a slump. Spoelstra benched him for the most part of the bubble playoffs until Goran Dragic went down with an injury in the Finals.
Nunn was inserted back into the war and he delivered three double-digit scoring games in that series against the Los Angeles Lakers. So, it’s not surprising that Nunn’s recent string of excellent performances have helped the Heat climb to a .500 record in the East.
Before his 25-point night against the Washington Wizards last February 5, Nunn did not see action for three straight games. Fortunately, the lefty combo guard is already used to this roller-coaster ride.
It seems like every time that Spoelstra experiments with the rotations, Nunn’s role is always the one that takes a direct hit. When he came back from that three-game span of DNPs, Nunn put up double digits in the scoring column for 10 games of the Heat’s 15 across their stellar 11-4 finishing record to finish the first half of the season.
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That is no coincidence and it shows to everyone just how much of an X-factor Nunn is for the Heat. That’s, even though, he was surprisingly left out of the Rising Stars roster this season.