Cavs: Larry Nance Jr.’s comments, play reiterate he’s key part of future

Cleveland Cavaliers big Larry Nance Jr. recently defending head coach John Beilein, and Nance’s play reiterate that he’s a key part of Cleveland’s future.

I’ve been a big fan of Cleveland Cavaliers reserve big Larry Nance Jr.’s play ever since he was traded here by the Los Angeles Lakers right near the 2018 deadline.

He’s clearly done a quality job of growing his game, and one could see that from Nance hitting 37.1% of his three-point shots to begin the 2019-20 season. Nance has shown he can be a really solid secondary playmaker, too.

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He had 3.2 assists per game in 2018-19, and he’s continued to show that he can make timely deliveries to cutters when it’s been feasible this season. He also continues to set up dribble hand-offs well with pieces such as Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman.

Clearly, Cleveland showed they value Nance in high regard, as he and the team reportedly agreed to a four-year, $44.8 million extension before last season, and he responded with career-highs really across the board in 2018-19.

Now, some of that was due to Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson being sidelined for a combined total of 99 games last season because of reported injuries, according to Basketball Reference. You still could see the growth in Nance’s game, though.

Plus, he is now on pace for a career-best in scoring with 10.5 points per outing in 2019-20, as noted by Basketball Reference.

Additionally, Nance has again done a solid job on both ends of the glass, too, as evidenced by him having 7.6 boards per game thus far, and you can often see him getting putbacks and generating extra possessions for the Wine and Gold throughout games as well.

Nance is second on Cleveland with 2.1 offensive rebounds per game, according to NBA.com.

Though Nance struggled scoring with four points on just two-of-10 from the field against the Orlando Magic in a close 93-87 loss starting in place for Kevin Love, who reportedly was out due to sickness, on Friday, Nance did bring energy throughout while playing a game-high 41 minutes, and had four offensive rebounds.

Orlando was without 2019 All-Star center Nikola Vucevic, but still, this Magic team is very solid defensively, and they have plenty of length, anyway, with pieces such as key defenders in Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon, to go with Mohamed Bamba.

At any rate, I appreciate what Nance brings to the Cleveland Cavaliers when he’s in there, and he has repeatedly shown that he is a core piece for the Cavs’ future. That’s because of the effort he brings on both ends every night, and the work ethic he has is likely the reason he’s expanded his game to be a legitimate three-point shooting threat off-the-catch now.

Furthermore, even after there was a report that came out on Friday that multiple players on the Cavaliers were unhappy with head coach John Beilein’s coaching style in being too hard on players and treating them essentially like college kids, Nance basically said that he had no issue whatsoever, and that even he wanted to play for Beilein before in college, too, according to Sports Illustrated’s Sam Amico.

Beilein is a first-time NBA head coach, for reference, and his last coaching tenure was for 12 years at Michigan before the Cavs. A 5-16 record thus far for the rebuilding Cavaliers is not at all surprising right now, and Beilein’s doing just fine.

This is what Nance said on Friday before Cleveland’s game against Orlando, as transcribed by Amico (and Thompson, especially, defended Beilein postgame, as local reporters highlighted).

"“Ideally, you’d like to keep those things in house, if there was those issues. But that’s today’s NBA. … I’ve never had an issue with a coach in my career. This one being no different. I wanted to play for him at Michigan to be honest with you.”"

I’ve touched on how I believe the players on the Cavs, and the organization, need to bear with Beilein in at least this first season for him.

This is a team that needs to practice hard, take their preparation seriously in this rebuild, and to build a winning culture, it takes individuals having a tremendous work ethic. Clearly, pieces such as Collin Sexton and Nance embody that.

Nance defending Beilein again, reiterates that Jr. is a key part of the Cavs’ future, and in particular, with Beilein at the helm trying to lead this team back to relevance in the Eastern Conference.

Beilein also praised Nance postgame, and I couldn’t agree more in regards to what he hit on about Jr. and how much tenacity he brings every time he’s on the floor. Preach, Coach B.

Nance, as Beilein touched on, did not have it going as a scorer in his start against Orlando, and unfortunately, Nance’s turnover in the closing moments of the game was a really costly one.

That being said, Nance’s defensive intensity will never waiver, and he’s rarely not going to make the right rotation as a help defender to aid teammates, such as youngsters in Cedi Osman and Sexton, and perhaps Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr. 

You could see that on display here in a big moment.

Nance sets the right example with how he plays.

He conducts himself in the best way possible as a growing leader for Cleveland, too.

In addition, whether or not the Cavs eventually choose to trade Kevin Love, which could be the case as according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on SportsCenter, Cleveland is ready to listen to offers for Love now, Nance should be a core piece for the Cavs for a long time.

Nance standing behind Beilein with his recent comments and Jr. always playing the right way show that.

As a die-hard fan of the Wine and Gold, the 26-year-old Nance continues to impress me more and more on and off the floor.