Cavs: An improved handle makes Larry Nance Jr. even more capable as playmaker

Larry Nance Jr. is a highly capable passing big for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Larry Nance Jr. has continued to get better in the past two seasons for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and in 2019-20, he had a career-high with 10.1 points per game. He also followed up that feat again from 2018-19 in the same way from three-point range, after showing some legitimate capability there then as he hit 33.7 percent of his 1.5 three-point attempts per outing.

That was in his first season shooting those with regularity. This now-past season, Nance hit 35.2 percent of his triple attempts on 2.8 three-point attempts per outing, and looking at next season, I believe it’s fair to expect Nance to show more growth in that regard.

He’s worked his way into becoming a nice catch-and-shoot threat, which has been really good to see for Cleveland.

Plus, Nance improved on-ball more so last season, and while the frequency wasn’t humungous at 7.9 percent, Nance did place in the 92nd percentile as a post-up scorer in 2019-20, per Synergy Sports. With Nance showing post-All-Star break that he could actually be a viable 3 man in some stretches for J.B. Bickerstaff, who took over the head coaching reigns in that that span, that post-up capability was really encouraging, too.

That said, even while Nance clearly has made continued strides in the scoring sense to go with his rebounding, lob presence and versatility/team instincts defensively, his playmaking still is notable for the Cavaliers. Nance had a solid 2.2 assists per game this now-past season, and in his last 25 games active of 2019-20, he had 3.0 helpers per outing.

Similarly to Kevin Love, Nance has great passing feel for a big for the Cavs, which regularly aids pieces such as Kevin Porter Jr., Collin Sexton and others, and next season, we’ll see that carry on regarding Nance.

Moreover, Nance’s improved handle makes him even more capable as a playmaker for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Nance showed, and seemingly more so as this past season for the Cavs progressed, that he has a better handle. That of course aided him some as a driver, and when being guarded by less athletic and/or slower 4’s/occasional 5’s, in particular.

Nance established himself as a viable grab-and-go threat after defensive rebounds, too, which was good to see for coming years. Next season, I’m sure we’ll see more of that as well.

Again, however, an improved handle clearly makes Nance even more capable as a playmaker for the Cavs, in a secondary playmaking role. Nance has impressive vision for a big and if there’s a logical extra pass/one more swing to be made to shooters, he’ll seemingly always make that play.

He’s able to make his share of big-to-big passes as well, and next season, I’d think we should see that more to Andre Drummond, who has expressed that he fully intends to pick up his $28.8 million player option for next season.

With him being able to handle it more, though, and create for himself at times and with him establishing himself as a real catch-and-shoot perimeter threat, I’d imagine Nance should be even more capable in the playmaking sense for the Cavs.

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Granted, I’d think that Darius Garland, Kevin Porter Jr. more so, too, considering the passing growth he displayed as last season progressed, and perhaps LaMelo Ball, a gifted playmaker that the Cavs could maybe look to draft, would handle most primary playmaking duties. That’s with KPJ/Dante Exum, to an extent, doing so off the bench at least, if the Cavs don’t go guard in the upcoming draft.

Porter is a player that Bickerstaff wanted to see some at the 1 in what was supposed to be a larger portion of the rest of the season for Cleveland, too, for context.

Maybe Matthew Dellavedova a bit, who could seemingly be re-signed this upcoming free agency period, could be in that realm in a rotational/insurance sense, too.

Nonetheless, Nance should again be a really reliable contributor for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the passing sense.

To reiterate, with him being able to be more of a legitimate driving threat thanks to an improved handle, that only makes him more capable as a secondary playmaker. I believe we could see Nance get the ball to the corners via drive-and-kicks to KPJ, Sexton/Garland, some to Love and a potential sharpshooter in Dylan Windler, in particular, if he’s mostly healthy.

Again, as we saw some of more so as 2019-20 wore on, Nance’s improved handle could enable him to set up dump-offs/more big-to-big deliveries for high percentage looks after bigs come over to rotate to Nance as well, too.

Needless to say, with Nance’s on-ball improvement as a scorer and/or having more scoring capability thanks to an improved handle, it should continue to help him aid the Cavaliers as a big/occasional 3 man passer also.