Kendrick Nunn was looking good through the first three quarters of this game. Now that the sting of defeat has worn off, I can say those words without irony or anger or any of those other negative emotions that plague me after I watch the Bucks lose. He might be an old rookie at age 24, but even old rookies usually need some adjustment time to get used to the NBA. Not so with Nunn.
Unfortunately, Nunn did not get to be a direct part of the Heat’s miraculous comeback in regulation because he fouled three times in the fourth quarter, earning him a permanent trip back to the bench. Would Nunn have been missing all those free throws that his teammates tried to choke away the game by missing? Probably not. Nunn was an 80% FT shooter in college, and free throws are basically the only thing that is exactly the same between the college game and the professional game.
So, this highlight video isn’t as impressive as it could be, but it’s still cool, especially for a player’s second game in his rookie season. He showed that he has some playmaking instincts by finding Adebayo for easy buckets, and that lob to Derrick Jones Jr. was nifty as well, even though it sort of looks like Nunn is getting his shot blocked instead of making an actual pass. One thing we can know for sure: Dion Waiters is not happy about any of this at all. I expect a barrage of cryptic (and not-so-cryptic) tweets from that dude any day now.