Cleveland Cavaliers: Grading Larry Nance Jr.’s play thus far in 2019-20

Grading Nance’s offensive game thus far this season

As stated above, this season is Nance’s best when it comes to scoring, and having a three-point shooting element more regularly has benefited the Cavaliers.

Diving into the statistics, Nance is shooting 53.1% from the field and 35.2% from three-point range on 2.8 attempts per game, according to Basketball Reference. He is also shooting 37.6 percent on catch-and-shoot triples, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data and 63.7 percent on two-point field goals, which includes a 74.0 percent mark in the restricted area.

Now, these statistics shouldn’t be the end-all, be-all of his offensive game considering the number of shots he has taken. Of course, for a player like Nance, more shots would mean a decrease in his overall efficiency.

Also, of all his made field goals this season, 161/229, or 70.3 percent, of them have been assisted, as indicated by NBA.com. This statistic goes to show that Nance really does not possess an iso game and looking further, Nance has run an iso play on a frequency of just 4.0 percent of plays that involve him, as demonstrated by Synergy Sports.

Now, this is not a knock on Nance but, other average to elite players with similar builds, at 6-foot-7, and about 235-Nance’s 245 pounds, have shown the ability to do so.

Looking quickly at Nance’s playmaking ability, it seemed to have been on the rise in March, which helped the Cavs, who were without Darius Garland in that stretch due to a left groin strain. Throughout the year, Nance had shown some sneaky facilitating abilities and it had seemed to be risen to a notable spike in the Cavs’ last five games leading into the NBA’s season suspension. Through those games, he was averaging 4.4 assists per outing and these contests included a six-assist and an eight-assist night.

All in all, it looks as if Nance’s offensive game includes a lot of off-ball action. Nance has been involved in a ton of pick-and-rolls, pick-and-pops, and catch-and-shoot plays and it seems as if this will be his offensive role moving forward. His recent rise in three-point shooting is intriguing and coupled with his athleticism, it looks as if he will be a great fit on the offensive side for the Cavs moving forward.

Nance’s playmaking abilities are really what has intrigued me most this season but, Nance doesn’t appear to have a “package” in his game.

Considering that most of his shots are dunks and catch-and-shoot shots, I believe that his offensive game is just about average.

Nance’s offensive grade thus far in 2019-20: C+/C

Secondly, we’ll hit on Nance’s defensive play thus far this season, of which it’s unclear if this current season will eventually resume or not in some capacity.