Cavaliers’ team defense will suffer even more without Larry Nance Jr.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been a disaster on defense most of the season, and it’s not going to get better with the injury bug hitting them yet again.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the NBA’s worst defensive team, as they have the worst defensive rating, and concede the highest opponent field goal percentage in the league, per NBA.com. They have been bombarded by injuries this year, but are not stocked with really good individual defenders, anyhow. Now, though, the Cavs’ defense will suffer even more in the coming weeks with Larry Nance Jr. potentially out for two-to-four weeks with a right MCL sprain, the team announced.

As we’ve hit on over and over again here at KJG, the Cavs simply are not equipped to be a good defensive team right now. Even with Nance in the lineup (who averages 0.9 blocks per 36 minutes, per Basketball Reference), they do not have viable rim protection, and that forces them to over-help, and they also can’t create many turnovers as a result.

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It’s not as though Nance is an All-World individual interior defender, but he is solid when forced into switchouts in pick-and-roll, and does get a fair share of deflections and steals from having great team defensive instincts.

That’s evidenced by Nance leading the Cleveland Cavaliers in steals with 1.5 per game, according to NBA.com.

Not having that ability, along with Nance’s crucial role of being a key communicator in the back line of Cleveland’s defense, forces Tristan Thompson and Cleveland’s perimeter players to be even more dialed-in when containing opponents’ drives.

With even more penetration than usual likely to occur with a player such as Ante Zizic and/or Channing Frye playing more with Nance out, opponents will have even more open shots from the perimeter.

That will cause struggling defenders such as Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman to have the right timing when rotating to shooters, or at times splitting on the weak and/or strong side.

Jaron Blossomgame has done a solid job thus far with his defensive effort (as evidenced by his 0.8 steals and 0.5 blocks per 36 minutes, per Basketball Reference), and can provide some solid rebounding as a reserve.

7.9 rebounds per 36 minutes is pretty good, and with him playing a small-ball four 49.0 percent of the time he’s been on the floor this year, that could be serviceable in spurts next to Thompson. Nance averages 7.5 rebounds per game, so with a bit more minutes-share, Blossomgame’s glass-cleaning could see an uptick, feasibly.

Fellow two-way man Jalen Jones has done a decent job with his off-ball defense on the wing, and I would expect his 6-foot-11 wingspan to help some in the passing lanes near the paint, too.

Nonetheless, as we touched on before, Nance should not be rushed back to action for the Cleveland Cavaliers, whose primary focus the rest of the season is not winning games, and with that being the case, they’ll have to have players learn more on the fly.

The best teacher is experience on both ends of the floor, and with Nance and players such as David Nwaba (who’s reportedly dealing with a tough ankle sprain) out, the other Cavaliers will keep getting a crash course on defense, which down the road, will help in their development. Next man up, eh?