Cavs: Darius Garland and Larry Nance Jr. could have budding chemistry

Darius Garland and Larry Nance Jr. should both definitely be important pieces for the Cleveland Cavaliers next season, and they could be a notable duo.

Larry Nance Jr. has established himself as one of the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ crucial rotational contributors, who has grown his game the past two seasons after signing a four-year extension before 2018-19. Cavs general manager Koby Altman has been one of the biggest Nance fans from the jump, and that played into that.

With the Cavs having such a young roster including lottery picks of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland the past two drafts, Nance has seemed to have a growing leadership role, and the 27-year-old’s role in that realm should continue to be more prominent.

With Sexton finding his footing in the league and Garland not quite living up to expectations in his rookie season, there is a good chance that Nance should aid Garland in getting back on track in his year 2. Granted, Garland’s prior meniscus injury at Vanderbilt didn’t help his adjustment, and that seemed to affect him, per a report in which he touched on that from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

Anyhow, before Darius Garland’s rookie season, Larry Nance Jr. made himself very available to him and the rest of the rookies that the Cavs brought in, and Garland and Jr. likely grew closer given that.

Garland and Nance’s friendship carried over to them playing well as 2019-20 progressed, and those two Cleveland Cavaliers players could have budding chemistry.

This budding friendship that they have built over the past two seasons will likely continue to carry over onto the court and there are ways that their games would mesh very well together.

There is a good chance that Garland could be coming off of the bench even early on in 2020-21, as his game as we have seen does not work well at all with the Cavs young star in Sexton.

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With Nance also being a bench player for the Cavs, it is likely that we will see the two share more time on the court together, though plenty of stretches involving that duo should arise regardless.

The biggest thing that Nance does to impact Garland is being a versatile big that’s able to run the floor and navigate an offense well, and he is a gifted passing big.

With Garland’s three-point shot and jumper as a whole more than likely improving, hopefully, during this offseason, Nance would be the perfect player to set off-ball screens for Garland to get open shots following relocation or from flare screens. Nance times his screens well in that regard, too.

Along with that, Nance himself has continued to better his own three-point shot which should allow Garland more one-on-one opportunities with his defender along with there being less traffic around the rim.

Nance is fresh off hitting a career-best 35.2 percent of his three-point attempts in 2019-20, and next season, it would seem reasonable to think Nance could show more growth in that way, too.

Those factors could result in both Garland’s percentage from two’s to improve from the 43.4 percent he averaged this now-past season and his three-point percentage to improve as well, which was 35.5 percent as a rookie. For Nance, too, we could seemingly see productive interior opportunities for him as a lob threat, feasibly following handoffs to Garland.

Moreover, it is again clear that Garland and Nance could have a budding chemistry, which would be meaningful for the Cleveland Cavaliers.