Cleveland Cavaliers: Where Larry Nance Jr. ranks against other starting PFs

#24: Taurean Prince

Given that the Brooklyn Nets and head coach Kenny Atkinson will continue on with their movement offense predicted on having four legitimate shooters on the floor at all times, it seems as though Taurean Prince is likely the team’s starting 4, as Nothin’ But Nets’ Erik Slater hit on.

Prince, who was acquired this offseason along with a future second-round pick in a reported trade involving two Nets’ first-round picks and Allen Crabbe (per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski), has been a pretty reliable starter for the Atlanta Hawks the last two seasons.

Last year, Prince had 13.5 points per game on 57.5% true shooting, and that included a three-point shooting clip of 39.0%. As a catch-and-shoot/stretch 4 for Atkinson, I’d expect Prince to have a three-point clip of over 40.0% in 2019-20 with the likes of Kyrie Irving, Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie and others getting Prince plenty of looks in the corners.

Prince is able to make good, strong straight-line and baseline drives after handoffs and hard closeouts, too, though, in taking advantage of DeAndre Jordan and Jarrett Allen‘s screens, Prince should have plenty of chances to get buckets in the paint and from pull-ups as well.

As a perimeter defender, Prince can sit and slide pretty well and is disciplined in taking the right angles to get through screens, but at the 4 at only a listed 220 pounds, I’m not sure he’ll be able to take on more interior bigs, considering he’s only played the 4 position 20.0% of his career minutes (per Basketball Reference).

Atkinson will have to monitor that as the season progresses with Prince, but the threat he’ll pose as a shooter should make him a solid contributor.

#23: Larry Nance Jr.

This seems right for now to me for Nance.

Nance is a very intelligent defender, especially in the team sense as a rotator and he actually tied with Victor Oladipo in deflections per game with 2.8 last season (per NBA.com). He is a good rebounder on both ends, too, and is a constant rolling and screening presence, and has advanced passing feel for a big.

This is likely the first year Nance will have been a mostly-full-time starter, though.

As was referenced before and has been touched on often, Nance is fresh off a career-best in seemingly all major categories, and with him fully cemented as a core player for Cleveland, I’d expect his marks to go up a bit again in 2019-20.

I’d also expect his three-point volume to increase with what he showed last season, as he hit a solid 33.7% of his 98 attempts in 2018-19 (per NBA.com), and perhaps the percentage can go up a bit, too.

That would be good with me, but given the myriad of other ways Nance helps Cleveland on both ends of the floor and as an emerging leader, a similar three-point shooting clip would be fine, anyhow.

Nonetheless, Nance is still not much of a rim protector (though nobody really is on Cleveland at this point) or a low post presence, and just how high of a scoring ceiling at this point does he have?

That I’m not too sure of, but again, he does so many other things well and this ranking is no slight to him at all, and by year end, he could very well outplay it.

#22: Marvin Bagley III

Marvin Bagley III is one of the Sacramento Kings’ building blocks for the near future.

As a rookie last season, he showed good polish on the offensive end as an interior scorer that has advanced feel in the post, and if he gets position and can get the ball for his strong-handed short/jump hook, he’s likely getting a bucket.

The rookie had 14.9 points per game on 50.4% shooting, and though he’s not much of a three-point shooting threat (just a 31.3% clip on a three-point rate of 13.6%), he’s very capable in the mid-range, and that leads me to believe he’ll eventually be a viable threat from deep.

That would open up his interior game even more, and with Bagley proving to grit and grind constantly in his minutes, on the glass in particular, his production across the board is due for an increase in 2019-20.

He only started in four out of the 62 games he was active in last year, per Basketball Reference, and a reported knee bone bruise kept him out a notable stretch toward the end of 2018-19.

Bagley is not often able to switch out near the perimeter, but he did seem much better as a rim protector as a rookie than he was at Duke. 1.0 blocks per game and a block rate of 3.2% (both per Basketball Reference) had to make the Kings satisfied, by and large.

Bagley will be in his first season as a full-time starter, though, and with him being a non-floor spacer, nor able to switch out much, this seems to be a fair ranking on a stacked list.