The Cleveland Cavaliers could use a Larry Nance Jr.-Andre Drummond frontcourt pairing at times more so for defensive purposes.
Next season, the Cleveland Cavaliers will again have the services of Andre Drummond, who emphasized on a podcast appearance that he fully intends to pick up his $28.8 million player option. With that being the case, the Cavs will have more time to see if Drummond could potentially fit long term.
Cleveland and Drummond have reportedly both “shown interest” in a potential contract extension, but with that possibility coming in late October, it’s still a ways away before that could possibly end up playing out.
I’m still unsure at this point if Kevin Love and Drummond, at least for significant stretches, can be a productive frontcourt pairing, with neither being able to really switch out in pick-and-roll coverage and with Drummond not being a shooter at the other end. That last bit could maybe clog driving lanes for Collin Sexton and others in a number of instances, too.
That said, Drummond is fresh off having a career-best 17.7 points per game, and he is arguably the league’s best rebounder.
Plus, to me, in some matchups, considering Drummond is still a very active team defender, and actually was second in the league in total steals going into the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus, a Drummond-Larry Nance Jr. pairing in the frontcourt could work for some stretches.
The crucial element with that possibility at times for Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and company is that both Drummond and Nance have such good instincts as rotators, which could help Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr., Darius Garland and/or others.
Though Drummond is not switchable really, Nance is, which is not the case for Love, and in some matchups, this pairing could bode well with both being so active in passing lanes, and both still clearing the glass so effectively, as is the case with Love. Those two as a pairing could cause their share of live-ball turnovers, which could greatly aid Sexton and Porter, for instance, going the other way for easy buckets in some stretches in games.
Albeit the critical aspect to a Nance-Drummond frontcourt pairing comes at the other end for it to be viable.
For the Cleveland Cavaliers to utilize a Nance-Drummond pairing at times, key shooters need to be around them.
Obviously, Love should play a considerable bulk of his minutes alongside Drummond, but again, in some matchups, with Love being limited defensively, it could pay off to have Nance alongside Drummond for stretches. That’s due to Nance likely being Cleveland’s best on-ball defender. That’s for now, at least.
Granted, we should see some lineups in certain matchups where Nance, who showed the ability to play the 3 position in some instances post-All-Star break, could play with Love and Drummond at the 4/5, too. However, a Nance-Drummond pairing might work out better for Cleveland in other matchups, with Cleveland having feasibly Dylan Windler more so at the 3, who is a much more natural fit there than Nance.
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So swinging back, the key to the Cleveland Cavaliers at times featuring a Nance-Drummond frontcourt defensive pairing would be the Cavs having key shooters around them to balance things out more.
That means the Cavs would have to have the likes of a combination of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Porter, the aforementioned Windler and/or maybe Cedi Osman.
No, Garland did not have the season we wanted to see from on an off-the-bounce shooting standpoint in 2019-20, but he should be more effective next season with him not overthinking plays as much, especially as a shooter, as he reportedly was as a rookie.
That came with Garland only appearing in five games in his lone collegiate season at Vanderbilt, but again, the potential for Garland is definitely there as a big-time shooter, and he did hit 39.2 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.
We still did see flashes of that last season, and Garland is more than capable of getting the likes of Drummond and Nance quality shots as a playmaker, too. Albeit Garland would need to show more aggression as a shooter with Love not on the floor in these potential stretches, but I believe he would.
Whether Sexton would be at the 1 or 2 in these Nance-Drummond sequences does still feature him, though, as a key shooter, too. Sexton is a capable pull-up scorer, and he hit 38.0 percent of his three-pointers last season, and in 2020-21, I’d expect Sexton to be even more efficient on spot-ups as well. Additionally, with the passing ability of Nance, that could bring a similar secondary playmaking element to that of Love, too.
Lastly, while Porter was not efficient as a pull-up shooter as a rookie, he did show flashes there to couple with his already polished finishing.
Along with that, with Porter’s passing feel, him also hitting 40.7 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data, leads me to think he’d fit just fine with Nance-Drummond, too. KPJ’s handle/passing could create open perimeter looks and lobs in these situations with him more comfortable in year 2, too.
That type of thing is where Windler could make a significant impact, in particular, and help space the floor for Drummond. Windler hit 40.6 percent of his three-point looks in a four-year collegiate career at Belmont, and hit 42.9 percent of his 7.1 three-point looks as a senior while putting up 21.3 points per outing.
In Osman’s case, he maybe could fit in with Nance and Drummond as well with how he did hit 38.3 percent of his three-point looks in 2019-20, though I’d rather see Windler more so, who has a better handle for the pull-up game.
At any rate, for the Cavs next season, a Nance-Drummond pairing could be very effective and be called for at times, but the crucial element to that being viable is having the big shooting guns around them. Nance did hit a career-best 35.2 percent of his triples last season, but he’s not necessarily known as primarily a perimeter shooter.
Garland, Windler and/or KPJ, from a spot-up sense, are the ones that come to mind in that regard, and/or Sexton. Alfonzo McKinnie, Dante Exum and/or potentially Matthew Dellavedova, if he were to be re-signed, would not be viable options in those instances with Nance-Drummond, even with them being defensive pieces.
Osman might not be nearly as such, either, though, and while Windler did not appear in 2019-20 due to complications regarding a stress reaction in his left leg, he is reportedly progressing well in his rehab, and with Nance-Drummond in the frontcourt, I’d imagine would mesh better.
The point is if Cleveland is prioritizing a defensive frontcourt in spurts with Nance and Drummond, which could be sensible, having three key shooters and ideally, capable on-ball options around them would be paramount. If those pieces around Nance-Drummond at least applied solid ball pressure and were active as rotators/stunters on to drivers/cutters, that could work out well in spurts.