Cavs: Game vs. Blazers was reminder Larry Nance Jr. should be involved more as offensive initiator

Last season, Cleveland Cavaliers big Larry Nance Jr. was involved a considerable amount as an offensive initiator. On Saturday against the Portland Trail Blazers, Nance showcased more of that, and it was a reminder that the Cavaliers should get back to using him more in that way.

At the early part of the 2019-20 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, reserve big man Larry Nance Jr. has showed continued improvement as a catch-and-shoot shooter. That’s of course, a nice development to see, and Nance is shooting 38.9% from three-point range this year.

In the 2018-19 season, though, Nance showed he can really be a quality secondary playmaker in coming years for Cleveland. He displayed that in the Cavs’ last game, a 110-104 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.

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Now the Blazers, who are really banged up currently in the frontcourt, are far from a quality defensive team right now, and are just 5-12. It was still a reminder, though, that the Cavs should involve Nance more as an offensive initiator than they have thus far this season.

Nance had 3.2 assists per game for Cleveland, and trailed only reserve guard Matthew Dellavedova in that metric among Cavaliers last season, as noted by NBA.com.

Nance has very good feel as a passer for a big, and has always been able to get perimeter players, such as Jordan Clarkson and Cedi Osman, moving downhill or get them into in-rhythm jumpers after quality hand-offs.

Now with star big Kevin Love mostly available this season, whereas last season he was only active in 22 games, mostly due to reported toe surgery, Nance was more involved as a playmaker.

With Love in the fold most games so far in 2019-20, he’s been the main playmaker when it comes to Cleveland bigs, and is second on the Cavaliers in assists per game with 2.7.

Love is clearly the engine of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ offense, and with him in there, which was not the case against Portland reportedly due to back soreness, it makes perfect sense that head coach John Beilein is going to run plenty of possessions through Love.

Love has really good vision as a big passer as well, but again, this Portland game reminded me that the Cavs need to involve Nance as an offensive initiator more often than they have been to this point this season. Nance has just 1.3 assists per game thus far in 2019-20, but that’s not reflective of him, and he moves the ball well and in a productive manner.

Nance is such an unselfish player, much like Cedi Osman, who led Cleveland in assists against Portland, and with the way Nance (and Osman, too) will make extra passes on a consistent basis, that often is contagious.

This entry feed gets guys, such as Tristan Thompson here, easy chances, and I’d like to see this featured more between Nance and Love even in terms of big-to-big passing.

According to NBA.com’s player tracking data, Love has not received an assist from Nance yet this season.

That to me, is not really on Nance, whereas it’s more so because when the two are on the floor together, which has been 11.8 minutes per game thus far this season, as NBA.com notes, Nance is more so relegated to a spot-up player, which doesn’t need to really be the case.

Nance initiating hand-offs more when he’s in there with Love with guards, such as Collin Sexton or Clarkson, can allow Love to get position on the weak side in the low or mid-post.

Plus, if opponents shut off that hand-off, the movement could at least draw less attention to Love off-ball if cutters get through the lane and fan out. From there, Nance is more than capable of finding Love, and if a double then comes, Love can find the opposite or strong side corner, anyhow.

Moreover, even if Nance is not getting a high assist rate in most instances (he has just a 8.3% assist rate now, as NBA.com demonstrates), I’d still like Beilein and company to use him to get the offense going more.

When Nance is in there, he’s always moving, and though he’s improved his three-point stroke, I’d still like to see him more involved in terms of getting the offense rolling (he also seems in good shape after he missed two games recently due to a reported thumb issue). He makes good decisions and initiates productive ball-swings that minimizes the chance of stagnant possessions.

This was a heck of a kick-out here, and these sort of plays get a young player such as Darius Garland more confident as the season moves along.

Use Jr. more as a playmaker, again, Cavs.

He had four assists against the Blazers (which was second behind Osman, as ESPN noted), and it’d lessen the burden on Love in that regard.

That’d also be a big help for the young guards when Nance is in there with them, or the likes of Matthew Dellavedova.

Nance was very active and got players such as Clarkson, Collin Sexton and Osman going around productive screens, too, and anyway, the Cavaliers should let Jr. initiate some offense more going forward.