Kendrick Nunn says he feels ‘100%’ after missing last season with bone bruise

The frustrations were aplenty last season for the Lakers, but one of the consistent ones throughout the year was Kendrick Nunn’s continued battle to get back on the court.

After being the franchise’s marquee offseason signing, Nunn came in with expectations of being the team’s sixth man. A preseason bone bruise was only supposed to limit him for a number of weeks, but instead, Nunn never made an appearance for the Lakers in the regular season. A number of starts and stops left him, the Lakers and their fans searching for answers.

Ultimately, Nunn was shut down late in the season and headed into the offseason looking to get back to full strength. Fortunately for Lakers fans, he is, in fact, back to 100% by his own account.

In an interview with Spectrum SportsNet, Nunn talked about the improvement of his health this offseason.

“I feel great. I feel 100%, to be honest. Back to where I’m normally playing at a high level.”

Being sidelined the whole season was obviously the worst-case scenario for Nunn’s first year in Los Angeles. Nunn tried to make the best of a bad situation by analyzing the game from the sidelines and admitted that things slowed down for him.

“I wasn’t expecting to sit out that long but I took advantage of it just to watch. Sit back and watch from a different perspective.”

It goes without saying that this is great news for the Lakers with over a month before the start of training camp. Having a healthy version of Nunn — a combo guard with an ability to score at all three levels — addresses some of the Lakers’ backcourt issues. On paper, he makes a ton of sense as a fit alongside LeBron James.

All that is assuming the Lakers keep Nunn moving forward. Among his Laker teammates, only Talen Horton-Tucker has been mentioned as much in trade rumors as Nunn, with the Lakers exploring every possible option to improve upon last year’s disaster. Nunn has virtually no on-court trade value after missing a season, but he is an expiring contract and could be added to a deal in order to match incoming salaries.

Whatever the future holds for him, though, it’s encouraging to see him back on the court, which is great news for both him and the team after a frustrating 2021-22 campaign.

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