Post#11 » by lethalweapon3 » Tue Oct 29, 2019 7:28 pm
Senior Night is always a special affair in high school sports. It’s extra super-duper special anytime a senior gets his basketball jersey retired, on the spot, at a legendary program like Chicago’s Simeon Career Academy.
This was a coronation of sorts for Jabari Parker, the Duke-bound Simeon senior who looked to be going places well beyond Durham in the years to come. After Jabari led the highest-ranked boys team in the nation to their fourth consecutive Illinois Class 4A state championship in 2013, the Wolverines couldn’t wait to lift his #22 into the rafters beside the honors for Derrick Rose, Bobby Simmons, and the late, great Benji Wilson.
Another Simeon senior’s jersey, #20, was hoisted right up there alongside Parker’s, for the only other person to ever start as a freshman at the storied school, the Robin to his Batman.
“1-2-3, CANCUN!” That’s always a funny joke directed at losing basketball teams. That is, unless you were Parker, who won an MVP trophy after guiding Team USA to gold during the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 tournament in the coastal Mexico town. The next summer, in Lithuania, despite being sidelined with a foot injury, Jabari joined Justise Winslow in helping secure another title for the Stars ‘n Stripes, this time at the 2012 FIBA World U17 World Championship.
How many people can say they won multiple international basketball tournaments for their country, with a high school teammate right alongside him?
In Parker’s case, that would be one of Winslow’s newest teammates. Coming into tonight’s face-off with Jabari’s Atlanta Hawks, Kendrick Nunn leads not only the Miami heat (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Sun in MIA, NBATV), but all NBA rookies, in scoring (22.3 PPG; 57.6 2FG%, 42.1 3FG%).
Nunn has been exactly what KB21 ordered, filling in aptly while the heat (2-1) had to proceed without their new fear-mongering leader Jimmy Butler (DNP, cajoling newborn into learning to walk), who likely returns tonight for his Miami debut, and a few other would-be contributors. Not even Dwyane Wade scored more points through his first three career games in Miami, and Kendrick is out to show he’ll be much more than a momentary Flash in the pan.
While the one-and-done P.T.P.’er, Parker, was being fast-tracked for professional greatness, the now 6-foot-2 Nunn had to go the some-and-keep-going route. He carried Wilson’s Simeon legacy to Champaign by wearing #25 at Illinois. But his path through the Big Ten was derailed. The Illini dismissed the rising senior in 2016 after he pleaded guilty to a domestic violence-related battery charge.
While coming to terms with his misdemeanor by conducting public service hours, Nunn enrolled at Michigan’s Oakland U. and sat out a transfer year. It was in 2017-18 that the Golden Grizzlie’s scoring exploits began popping up routinely on SportsCenter.
On his way to earning Horizon League Player of the Year, Kendrick averaged a sparkling 25.9 PPG. Only one D-1A collegian could boast of a higher season average – Oklahoma’s Trae Young (27.4). Among the few to sink more than Trae’s 3.7 triples per game as a Sooner was Oakland’s Nunn (NCAA-high 4.5 3FGMs/game), hitting them at nearly a 40 percent clip, despite virtually every opposing Ho-League defender determined to stand in his way.
While he went undrafted in 2018, Nunn did catch the attention of the Golden State Warriors, who had him in Summer League and training camp. Kendrick then showed he was no Banana Slug, filling up buckets quickly in Santa Cruz for the Dubs’ G-League team (19.3 PPG in 49 games, mostly as a reserve).
Pat Riley tacked Nunn onto the heat roster at the close of 2018-19 with a non-guaranteed make-good deal, and Nunn has been making good ever since. He was named to the NBA’s All-Summer League First Team after leading the Summerheat with 21 PPG, 6.3 APG, and 5.0 RPG. He continued to wow onlookers throughout training camp and in preseason games to secure a final spot on Miami’s roster. Now, Kendrick is out to show any doubters – and one Miami teammate, in particular – that he can be Second To, well, you know.
It could be that Dion Waiters is the fly in his own soup. I have loads of patience for players that need some extra time to work on their conditioning and aptitude, in preparation for an upcoming season. That is, if you’re a young butter-baller like Omari Spellman, having to adjust to a ramp-up in game frequency and minutes while training with and playing versus heightened levels of talent. Not so much for seven-plus-year “professionals,” like Waiters and James “Kung Fu Panda” Johnson, who played much of last season like they’re auditioning for Ice Cube’s scouts.
A former Hawks training camp cut, Johnson got his act together as a useful reserve in Memphis and then Toronto, peaking with the heat in 2017 before re-upping with a four-year, $60 million deal ($16 million player option in 2020-21).
With players like Hassan Whiteside and Tyler Johnson out of the picture, heat coach Erik Spoelstra planned to pick up the tempo this season (MIA #1 in Pace right now). You can imagine his disappointment when his could-be starting power forward, an accomplished black belt, approached training camp with a physique much closer to Dolemite than Jim Kelly (be sure to check out Eddie Murphy’s new NSFW flick, btw, it’s fun). Hopefully not from trying a Van Damme stunt, Johnson (groin) will sit tonight’s game out, too.
“He did not meet the requirements that he knew about and we set for him coming into training camp,” was about as much of a sugar-coating as Coach Spo, speaking to reporters after early October two-a-days, could offer in that situation. Spoelstra kept Johnson, who I assume bowed respectfully, away from the team, and he glued Waiters to the bench, a situation that left the latter moping on the sideline and online.
Returning from two-and-a-half ankle-injury-plagued seasons, Waiters hit some clutch shots last season as Miami (39-43) rolled into April with a shot at reaching the playoffs. For that reason, Peon Dion thought he was owed Wade’s usage as a starter in Miami’s 2019-20 lineup, particularly considering not only Wade but Josh Richardson was gone, the latter following the deal to reel in Jimmy Buckets (18.2 PPG, 46.1 FG%, 33.8 3FG% in Philly).
But there were integrals in the roster calculus that Waiters didn’t count on. Namely, Miami drafting auto-bucket guard Tyler Herro (51.9 preseason 3FG%) in the first round. Point guard Goran Dragic sticking around and playing reasonably well (19.0 PPG, 5.0 APG) after being dangled in trade offers throughout the offseason. And, the Flying Nunn swooping out of nowhere to clinch a spot not only on the roster, but in Spoelstra’s rotation.
With Butler preparing to assert his authority on the squad and regain his four-time All-Star status, Spoelstra can afford to have Waiters ($24.8 million, guaranteed cash, owed through 2020-21) stewing on the side as much as he would like. “I would win,” Waiters snapped back at his Insta-haters online in a veiled shot at his coach and GM, “if I had Bron and Wade plus Bosh.” Right now, Spoelstra would rightly retort, so might the rookies, Herro and Nunn.
He hit “send” on that missive after being suspended for Miami’s season-opener, what would be a 120-101 win over visiting Memphis where Nunn and Herro, starting, combined for 38 points on 16-for-32 shooting plus four steals, Nunn a team-best +27 on the night.
“There were a number of unacceptable incidents this week,” said Riley of Dion’s announced suspension, although usually one stops at one unacceptable incident before reacting, “culminating with his unprofessional conduct on the bench,” with the coach during Miami’s preseason finale.
“Eventually the truth will come to light,” Waiters Instagrammed, the well-worn go-to claim stated by people everyone but themselves can see are in the wrong. As it pertains to his NBA future, Waiters doesn’t yet know just how correct he sounds.
Icky all-around play in short stints from Hawks center Alex Len left South Floridian John Collins (16 points, 8 boards, 1 unfortunate poster, 6 fouls) stranded on Embiid Island and Horford Isthmus last night. Still, it was a valiant effort where his Hawks fell two points short of Finals-contending Philadelphia last night in Atlanta. Johnny Bap is likely to get a SportsCenter reprieve tonight, what with highlight-reel jumping jack Derrick Jones (groin) sitting along with Johnson.
Coach Lloyd Pierce has already deployed two rookies in his starting lineup, with appreciable defensive results. But on the eve of a back-to-back, and with a four-day respite coming after Thursday’s rematch with Miami back home, one wonders whether it’s already time for LP to put a third rook on the top line.
Bruno Fernando (62.5 FG%) sits second on the Hawks (2-1) with 20.3 points per-36, just ahead of Jabari’s 19.4, while his 11.1 rebounds per-36 is the closest by far to Collins’ 11.1. He has demonstrated a willingness to move the ball, to take and make open threes, to contest at the rim, and to keep his defensive assignment from springing free (Alex…) on the path between the perimeter and the paint.
Fernando (2 FTAs in 39 minutes) won’t be perfect from the jump, but as Cam Reddish can attest, the rookie isn’t supposed to be. Essential at this early juncture is to at least look like you’re putting in the effort to be effective. Contract Year Alex (4-for-16 FGs, 7.5 rebounds per-36) had Better Act Like Bruno, and soon.
Don’t nobody tell ever me there aren’t good backup point guards in the Southeast Division! Isaiah Thomas is out here proving he’s not washed! Markelle Fultz is stepping up! Dragic has been a luxury backing up Nunn! Evan Turner. Devonte’ Graham, wowzers!
Dewayne Dedmon is thankfully not doing much to make Hawks fans miss him while watching Len struggle. But Evan Turner (34 minutes through 3 games) will have to at least make us not miss Kent Bazemore. But for Achilles pain rendering him doubtful to play, tonight would have been a prime opportunity for the veteran to show he can be more than a defensive stopgap and an offensive caddy. Lest a hungry Tyrone Wallace comes along to give him the Nunn treatment. Point Bembry and Point Huerter will have to suffice, in the interim.
The non-Trae Hawks cranked out 14 assists last night versus the Sixers, led by Len and Kevin Huerter with three apiece, to go with 14 turnovers. Whether he is a point guard or a point forward, there’s no point if Turner isn’t setting up productive plays as a balance against teams like Miami, where multiple players have been dropping dimes in Butler’s absence. Winslow’s 6.7 APG paces the heat, as he takes on a more consistent starring role (19.0 APG), but center Bam Adebayo (5.3 APG) has been right behind backup guard Dragic.
Having quick-trigger jump-shooters like Herro (only 26.7 3FG% so far) and bigs Duncan Robinson, Kelly Olynyk and Meyers Leonard at the ready helps their cause. But these are not sound fullcourt defenders, and Young and the Hawks’ backcourt ball-handlers should be able to spark the offense with quick-strike transition plays, whether Miami’s threes fall or not. Wade’s not around to chase shots down anymore, so opponents might as well keep Butler busy. Atlanta’s 13.6% transition frequency (a paltry 1.02 points per possession) ranks just ahead of Miami’s 13.5% for 25th in the league.
Doghoused Dion will be back on the bench, the Sun-Sentinel and other beat writers report, in Miami’s return from a two-game road swing. But he will get the DNP-DUH treatment, out of uniform, and he is expected by Riley and Spoelstra not to cause any more intra-national incidents, as Nunn and Herro ball out in his stead. But that doesn’t mean Dion can’t accomplish anything while he… Waits. Say, has Life Center Academy in New Jersey retired his number, yet?
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
"Dunking is better than sex." - Shawn Kemp, 1996
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