Kendrick Nunn has reportedly not been cleared for 5-on-5 work yet

If you thought Kendrick Nunn’s declaration of being 100% healthy was the end of his injury saga, then you must be new around here.

Nunn did an interview with Spectrum Sportsnet last week in which he declared he was back to full health. That felt like the end of the injury updates as it comes to Nunn, updates that have stretched out 11 months now since his initial injury.

But the latest report may slightly contradict Nunn’s self-diagnosis. In a recent mailbag piece, Jovan Buha of The Athletic revealed that Nunn has yet to take part in 5-on-5 games yet.

Nunn recently spoke with Spectrum SportsNet about his health and said he feels 100 percent. He has been training with the younger Lakers – Reaves, Johnson, Wenyen Gabriel, Talen Horton-Tucker, and Mason Jones – during their Monday through Thursday offseason workouts. He hasn’t resumed five-on-five play yet, which is the next big hurdle. It seems like he should be ready to go by the start of training camp, but recovery isn’t always linear.

Well, that doesn’t seem great!

To be fair, Nunn feeling 100% and not playing in a 5-on-5 game yet may not be mutually exclusive. It could be as simple as there not being enough guys at the Lakers facility to play a full 5-on-5 game.

At the same time, there are a number of other places he could be playing 5-on-5 games if he was cleared and/or able. LeBron obviously played a game at the Drew League. The Rico Hines runs are a very common place where athletes play in the offseason. Nunn hasn’t been spotted at any of them yet.

The optimistic outlook could be that Nunn is playing it safe and cautious, trying to avoid any injury and fully rehab before the start of training camp. The pessimistic point of view focuses on the fact that Kendrick Nunn is expected to contribute this upcoming season and hasn’t played in a basketball game since last preseason.

Nunn’s demeanor in his interview with Spectrum was one of someone who seemed relieved to be back and fully healthy. For now, that’s all we really have to go on, but it’s really hard not to be generally pessimistic about another potentially negative injury update for Nunn.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.