The Miami Heat are in a position heading into the offseason that isn’t an enviable one to be in. Coming off of a first round playoff series sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, the Miami Heat are now tasked with retooling and re-grouping in hopes to make another run at the title in the near future.
With Jimmy Butler certainly locked up for the next few years and with a potential extension in the making, the Miami Heat have to build their team with a certain range of perspective, rather than based off impulse. That would start with how they choose to handle their own free agents to be.
While there are a few guys that can be free agents this offseason for the Heat, Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn are the two that most notably come to mind. When it comes to Duncan Robinson, he’s key to everything the Miami Heat want to do.
The Miami Heat have a few tough decisions to make in the coming offseason, luckily for them, Kendrick Nunn should be an easier one.
His overall shooting, of course, the spacing that provides, and the opportunities that all of that provides everyone else on the floor is too much to let go of for the Miami Heat and he must be brought back. As far as the other guy though, probably not so much.
To be specific and when thinking about K.Nunn, there is about a 10 percent chance that he returns to the Heat. Let’s think about it really quickly.
He’ll probably price himself out of the Heat’s range, for which the Heat should be applauded for not overpaying. Secondly, when it comes to the position that Nunn plays, which isn’t quite the point guard but somewhere between that and a shooting guard, you have a few of those on the roster already that are, flat-out, worth more to you than Nunn (Goran Dragic) or that could offer similar production for less money (Max Strus and/or Gabe Vincent).
Lastly, for the money that Nunn will command, the Heat can’t afford to pay that and have him abused as he was against Jrue Holiday. In just one example, his limitations far outweigh his strengths for Miami when it comes to paying him what he’ll likely command on the open market.
That’s why the chances for him to return aren’t that high. As mentioned, they are not much higher than 10 percent, if that high at all from the outside looking in.
Kendrick Nunn has been a really good find and player for Miami, hands down. However, with his much-deserved raise on the horizon, his time with Miami appears over.