Cavs: Stats prove the Jordan Clarkson-Larry Nance Jr. bond

Overall, this season for the Cleveland Cavaliers is one we will all like to forget, but one duo’s on-floor connection could have a more lasting imprint.

Amongst the chaos that has been the 2018-19 NBA season, two Cleveland Cavaliers players, Larry Nance Jr. and Jordan Clarkson, have built quite the connection on the floor.

Though it may not appear that way in real-time when you’re watching a game, taking the time to look at a few of the advanced metrics will show you just how effective Clarkson and Nance are when paired on the court together.

First off, Clarkson and Nance are familiar with one another dating back to their days with the Los Angeles Lakers, and as Cavs Nation’s Ralph Orense recently highlighted, in large part due to their chemistry, have been “two of the Cavs’ most consistent players this season.”

This fact is critical because as we know, the more time you spend with a player on the floor you begin to learn their tendencies and where they like to shoot from on the floor.

This builds up over time and often leads to easier baskets due to the fact your teammate knows where you will be on the floor and trusts you to knock down that shot.

The video clip below is Clarkson explaining just that, the duo’s familiarity with one another and how they each know what the other one can do, which can often turn into a great look for one or the other.

When you look at Clarkson and Nance’s net rating in a two-man lineup, it’s a -5.0, which ranks eighth among two-man lineups Cleveland had on the floor for at least 15 games and at least 200 minutes so far this season, per NBA.com.

While a -5.0 is not great, that is a pretty solid number when you take into account Cleveland’s circumstances throughout this season.

But to back up the earlier point, these two do seem to know each other’s game fairly well. The duo of Nance-Clarkson ranks fourth among those in that at least 15-game and 200-minute criteria in on-floor assist percentage (61.0 percent) on the Cavaliers this season, among two-man lineups.

What this shows is that their two-man game (especially with dribble hand-offs and pick-and-roll situations) creates good shots more times than not.

Just look at the vision from Clarkson on this play against the Miami Heat earlier this season.

He attacks the hoop strong but then sees and passes to Nance floating toward the basket unguarded, as he’s able to slam that ball home for two points.

It is beginning to become clear that these two, in fact, have a better than average chemistry when they are on the floor together.

Another interesting statistic to note is that Clarkson this season has assisted on 25 of Nance’s made baskets, which is tied for the most of any member of the Wine and Gold along with Cleveland Cavaliers rookie point guard Collin Sexton.

Looking at it the other way will show you that while Cavaliers’ backup point guard Matthew Dellavedova has assisted on the most baskets for Clarkson this season (43), Nance is right behind the Aussie point guard with 39 assists to Clarkson, according to NBA.com.

Digging this deep into the stats clearly shows comfortable chemistry is already in play for Clarkson and Nance.

This duo also has seen plenty of time together on the floor this season as well.

Clarkson and Nance have spent 892 minutes on the floor with each other, which ranks fourth behind Cedi Osman-Collin Sexton (1,235 minutes), Rodney Hood-Osman (914) and Nance-Sexton (904), per NBA.com.

But when you look at those four duos above, the -5.0 net rating of Clarkson-Nance is by FAR the best mark factoring in duos that fit the at least 15-game and at least 200-minute criteria, as the other three duos that have spent more time on the floor, all have a rating of -13.0 or worse.

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Even if you expand the comparison and look at the top ten duos from the Cavaliers this season in terms of minutes played together, that -5.0 rating for Clarkson and Nance trumps any of the other nine duos, with the closest pair to them coming in with a net rating of -13.2, per NBA.com.

Clarkson and Nance have played against bench players in a good chunk of those minutes, but they’ve definitely had great success against starting competition as well if you watch Cleveland’s games, and both have played pretty well in crunch time, anyhow.

Sure, this is pulling a tiny positive out of what has been an overall disappointing season for the Wine and Gold, but it is important to note that even though the Cavaliers as a whole may not be succeeding, there are still pairings on this team that produce when given the opportunity.

Nance’s future in Cleveland, for the time being, seems pretty secure, after reportedly signing a four-year contract extension in the offseason. However, Clarkson’s future here with the Cavaliers is a little less certain.

He is under contract for next season (per Spotrac) but rumors will indeed swirl in the offseason about a potential trade, given that Clarkson expires after the 2019-20 season.

While the duo of Clarkson and Nance isn’t one you will see highlighted on SportsCenter (or even the local news) the advanced metrics back up the fact that these two work well on the court together.

One would hope the Cavaliers’ brass recognizes this as well and keeps these teammates, and friends, around for the foreseeable future.