Lakers: Distressing Kendrick Nunn Recovery Timeline News

The $5 million guard is sitting pretty, cashing checks, and not playing meaningful basketball for a while longer...

We were just ruminating last week about a return timeline for Los Anakers guard Kendrick Nunn, the fifth-priciest player on the depth-hampered club's roster. Today, we got an update on the health status of Nunn from Dave McMenamin of ESPN, and unfortunately, it's not great:

Frank Vogel, with a brief update on Kendrick Nunn (bone bruise), says that the Lakers guard is unlikely to make his season debut in the next three weeks. Won’t see him in game action until 2022.

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 6, 2021

So Lakers head coach Frank Vogel has revealed that Nunn will not be available until January 2022 at the earliest. The 6'2" guard out of Oakland University has been sidelined by a bone bruise incurred in his right knee since the preseason in October.

Nunn, 26, inked a two-year, $10.25 million deal with the Lakers in free agency over the summer after spending his first two eventful NBA seasons with the Miami Heat, for whom he suited up against the Lakers during LA's most recent title run in 2020. The second season of the contract is a player option, but depending on Nunn's health, he may want to lock in that guaranteed coin next year.

The 12-12 Lakers could certainly use Nunn's contributions on offense. Through his first two seasons, Nunn averaged 15.0 points, 3.0 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 0.9 steals per game, on a career slash line of .458/.364/.881. Never much of a defender, Nunn will not help LA in that department, though the team could badly use a great perimeter-oriented defender.

I feel like they had a few of those guys last year though...

LA is also still missing projected starting power forward Trevor Ariza, although the 36-year-old Ariza appears to be closer to making his 2021-22 season debut.