NBA Draft: Luka Doncic rises to first in 2018 NBA Redraft

The Miami Heat have a world-class player development program that not only attracts players hoping to prove themselves but finds diamonds in the rough and polishes them into legitimate NBA players. Hassan Whiteside, Duncan Robinson and Max Strus are all recent examples, as is former Oakland guard Kendrick Nunn.

After going undrafted in 2018 Nunn had a cup of coffee with the Golden State Warriors before landing with the Miami Heat, who signed him to a multi-year contract that had very little risk for the Heat but captured all of the upside. Nunn delivered on that upside, becoming not only a rotation player but an All-Rookie team selection and a 111 game starter.

Nunn can score, which is a useful skill in a point guard. He has shot a mediocre 36.4 percent from deep, but his exceptional 88.1 percent free-throw mark (93.3 percent this past season) suggests he could improve to become an above-average outside shooter. He’s not much of a playmaker for others which means he is best deployed alongside another creator. Defensively he isn’t a sieve, but he isn’t a positive either.

In our normal timeline, Nunn just signed a two-year deal to join the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s therefore fitting that he goes to the Lakers here in our redraft, leaping up from undrafted to the first round. The Lakers originally took stretch-5 Moritz Wagner here, a player who drops out of the first round entirely for this redraft.