Former Warriors guard Kendrick Nunn is a legitimate candidate for NBA Rookie of the Year.
You might be saying to yourself right now: "Former Warrior?"
Yes, Nunn was a member of the Warriors' 2018 Summer League squad and spent 2018 training camp with Golden State. He even appeared in three preseason games before he was waived and joined the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League as an affiliate player.
The 6-foot-2 lefty averaged 19.2 points and 2.8 assists over 49 games with the Sea Dubs and then was scooped up by the Heat.
Through 13 games this season with Miami, the 24-year-old is averaging 17.3 points, 3.4 assists and 1.5 steals while shooting 48 percent overall and just under 39 percent from deep.
So how did he become one of the top rookies in the NBA?
As Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report writes:
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Studying Steph Curry and Kevin Durant when he was in camp with the Warriors taught Nunn the NBA virtue of routine. They designed each repetition, he noticed, to keep the pair of MVPs locked into their respective rhythms. "In this game, how competitive it is," Nunn says. "Rent is due every day to be the best."
Nunn was with Golden State only for a couple of weeks, but clearly he took advantage of the opportunity by soaking up as much knowledge as he could.
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Curry and KD work as hard as anybody on their craft, and that work ethic rubbed off on Nunn. Heat teammate Jimmy Butler is a huge fan of the Chicago native.
"He's definitely going to be in the league for a long time, don't get me wrong. But I hope he's a part of this organization for an even longer time," Butler told Fischer.
