Cleveland Cavaliers: Top 30 all-time greatest players
By Ben Beecken
player. 156. <ul> <li>7 seasons with Cavaliers (1988-94)</li> <li>Averaged 16.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game</li> <li>2x All-Star with Cavs</li> </ul>. PF. . Larry Nance, Sr.. 4
In 1981, more than 11 years before his son, Larry Nance, Jr., was even born, Larry Nance, Sr. was drafted by the Phoenix Suns with the 27th pick of the first round.
After averaging 17.3 points per game over five-plus season in Phoenix and being named to the All-Star team in 1984-85, Nance was shipped to Cleveland midway through the 1987-88 campaign. He played a key role on that year’s Cavs team that lost in a decisive Game 5 in the first round of the playoffs to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.
Nance made the All-Star team the next year and again in 1992-93. Cleveland was in the playoffs in all but two of his seven years in Cavaliers threads.
Nance was every bit as productive in postseason play, putting up 16.9 points, eight rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game over 41 playoff games in his Cavs career. Unfortunately, the Cavs lost in five games in the first round during his first three years in Cleveland and didn’t make the playoffs in 1990-91.
In the 1992 playoffs, however, Nance and the Cavs finally got past the first round. They beat the Nets, and then the Celtics in the second round before falling once again to the Bulls, although this time in the Eastern Conference Finals. That was as far as Nance would get in the playoffs prior to his retirement after the 1993-94 season.