After losing to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Lakers were officially eliminated from Play-In Tournament contention.
It has been a disappointing and frustrating year for the Lakers, who some considered to be title contenders. While that may look silly in hindsight, it would have been hard to bet against a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis in any seven-game series.
For the second consecutive year, injuries derailed Los Angeles from realizing their potential as a team. However, the most peculiar situation revolved around Kendrick Nunn, who constantly saw his return date pushed back after complications during his bone bruise rehab.
Nunn entered the 2021-22 season looking like an integral part of the rotation, but instead it looks like he will miss the entirety of the season. Nunn signed a two-year deal with the Lakers this past offseason with the second year being a player option, and it sounds like he is going to return to the team next year, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report:
And Nunn is expected to pick up his $5.25 million player option for next season, sources said, after not appearing in a game this year.
It is the smart move for Nunn and his camp as he needs to prove that he is healthy and can contribute to a winning team. Regardless of how the Lakers build out the team for the 2022-23 season, Nunn should be able to carve out a role as a ballhandling guard, especially if the reports about their desire to trade Russell Westbrook are true.
Another positive for L.A. in this scenario is they get Nunn’s salary on the books that they could use in a possible trade. The guard’s $5.25 million deal could be used to aggregate enough outgoing salary to bring back a player who can help fill the various holes on the roster.
It will be interesting to see what Nunn ultimately decides to do after his lost season, but hopefully he is able to help the Lakers in the near future.
Anthony Davis wonders what healthy Lakers could have looked like
There are a lot of what-ifs about the Lakers, with the biggest one being how things might have looked if Davis didn’t have to miss extended time. Davis openly wondered what Los Angeles could have looked like if everyone stayed healthy, though that no longer matters considering they will miss the playoffs.
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