#1: Playmaking help and a bit into Nance’s perimeter shooting growth for the Cleveland Cavaliers
Nance is one of Cleveland’s best passers, and in this role occasionally at the 3, they could ease playmaking burden on either Darius Garland or realistically Porter, who we could seemingly see a fair amount at the 1 next season.
Plus, the Cavs could honestly put Windler or Osman at the 2 with Nance at the 3 anyhow, with perhaps Collin Sexton at the de facto 1 and/or KPJ at the 2 instead. If the Cavs add a wing in the 2020 NBA Draft, though, they could still have Nance at the 3 in some instances to go bigger in matchups and have that said player at the 2 and if a player such as Osman doesn’t appear much, so be it.
The key here again is the 6-foot-7 Nance could provide playmaking help, and more so near the perimeter he could have more space to feed cutters in times at the 3. His improved handle could very well aid him in the passing element to hit shooters such as Windler and Garland on the perimeter, too.
For the Cleveland Cavaliers, Nance, who had 2.2 assists per outing in 2019-20 and averaged 3.2 per outing in his last 15 games, his passing feel could lead to really productive ball movement in this role with him able to survey defenses more and being more of a drive-and-kick player.
Nance’s improved perimeter shooting could make him again, definitely viable at times at the 3, too. He hit a pretty healthy 37.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot triple attempts in this now-past season (on a 32.9 percent frequency), per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.
So with his continued improvement from deep off-the-catch factored in with his post-up growth/playmaking, the Cavs could still have another legitimate corner spot-up option for their driving threats/a low post presence in Drummond to go to.
Not to mention, Nance is also one of the Cavaliers’ best cutters/lob threats, to go with offensive rebounders, which in big lineups, would add another wrinkle for opposing defenses to have to deal with.
Now we’ll touch on the defensive element for Larry Nance Jr. next after that first part of rationale (which I’m combining as one selling point).