Cavs: Larry Nance Jr. should have career-best as scorer again next season

Larry Nance Jr. should be one of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ best overall players again next season.

Larry Nance Jr. has clearly made strides on the offensive end for the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the last two seasons for the Wine and Gold, Nance has taken it up a notch since signing a four-year, $44.5 million contract extension before the 2018-19 campaign.

In 2018-19, which was his first full season with Cleveland after being traded to the Cavs near the 2018 deadline by the Los Angeles Lakers, Nance had a then-career-high 9.4 points per game. He had 3.2 assists per outing during that campaign, too.

Kevin Love being limited to just 22 games mostly due to toe surgery could’ve played a bit into those metrics, but what stood out in the scoring sense during that season was Nance’s improvement and willingness to take three-point attempts.

That was via the catch-and-shoot variety, and is overall for him, anyhow, but in 2018-19 in his first year taking them regularly, Nance hit 33.7 percent of his 1.5 triple attemptsp per game, which was reason for optimism.

He took that perimeter catch-and-shoot/spot-up ability further this now-past season, too, and that played some into Nance again having a career-high in scoring in 2019-20 at 10.1 points per game (even with Love mostly healthy, too). In this now-past Cavs season, Nance hit 35.2 percent of his three-point attempts, and I find it reasonable to believe Nance’s three-point shooting growth should continue next season.

Anyhow, in relation to the next campaign for Larry Nance Jr., who will be turning 28 in January, I’d expect his scoring uptick to continue overall as well.

Nance should again have a career-high in scoring next season for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Nance, to reiterate, has made significant strides as a perimeter shooter, and in 2019-20, he had an effective field goal shooting clip of 55.0 percent on spot-ups, and placed solidly in the 65th percentile in those situations, per Synergy Sports. That was on a healthy frequency of 24.7 percent.

Nance’s growth extended to on the ball more so last season, too, though. His improved handle enabled him to be more of a real driving threat to take advantage of often slower bigs in primary coverage on him, and the more Nance proves himself as a spot-up threat, the more that will open up more driving opportunities for him.

Nance establishing himself as an occasional post-up presence was really nice to see last season, too, coupled with that. Albeit the frequency was only 7.9 percent, but Nance placed in the 92nd percentile as a post-up scorer in 2019-20.

He showed touch on post-up fadeaways a bit, and in settled offense and in secondary transition, he demonstrated good feel for sealing his defenders, enabling him to get quality interior looks with post position.

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Plus, he showcased the capability to be a 3 man option sometimes for J.B. Bickerstaff, who took over the Cleveland Cavaliers head coaching reigns post-All-Star break leading into the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus and ultimately the end of the season for Cleveland.

In those instances, Nance hit some interior looks shooting right over opposing 3’s and with his passing feel and vision for a big, in those stretches looking at next season, he could playmake out of the mid/low-post some, too, to pair with his high-post/drive-and-dump playmaking.

In turn, that could bode well for the likes of Kevin Porter Jr., Dante Exum some, Dylan Windler (if hopefully mostly healthy), and Collin Sexton, for example.

To recap in terms of his scoring, though, even while Nance’s better handle should aid him as a secondary playmaker in his minutes-share, Nance again should have a career-best in scoring next season for Cleveland.

Heck, he’s steadily improved as a scorer each year he’s been in the NBA. He had scoring averages of 5.5, 7.1, 8.7 and then the aforementioned 9.4 and 10.1 points per outing in his last two seasons, both of which were fully with Cleveland.

Factoring in his steady progression in the scoring through his first five seasons, with his continued growth as a spot-up threat, and I could see at times as a pick-and-pop player, honestly, and his improved handle, Nance should keep up that trend.

Nance of course is one of Cleveland’s best defensive players that is so heady as a team defender, in particular, is fresh off averaging 7.3 rebounds per game and is a very good passing big, but to re-emphasize, his scoring tool box is expanding. While he still is a good roller/screener, he’s so much more than a lob threat/energy big now for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I’d expect him to play in that 25.0-26.5 minutes range again next season, and him putting up in the ball park of 10.8-11.1 points per outing seems feasible with his improved offensive game and him being in year 6.