Cavs: 2 realistic expectations for Larry Nance Jr. for next season

Larry Nance Jr. has continued to improve with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It can’t be overstated how good it’s been to see Larry Nance Jr. get better and better for the Cleveland Cavaliers. After having a career season in 2018-19, Nance seemingly took a step further in his second full season with the Cavs.

In 2019-20, Nance again had a career-best in scoring with 10.1 points per outing, and had 7.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.0 steals per contest. Him hitting 35.2 percent of his three-point attempts on 2.8 attempts per game further proved that he’s a viable threat from deep off-the-catch looking onward, too.

Nance’s much improved handle he displayed last season for Cleveland played into him making strides as a driver more, in addition, and that should only aid him more as a high quality passing big in coming years. And defensively, Nance’s versatility, instincts and ability to close out/take proper angles to contest shooters under control, but with conviction, jumped out.

Swinging back to the much improved ball handling, though, Nance establishing himself as a grab-and-go threat for the Cavs following defensive rebounds was also a pleasant surprise from 2019-20.

That makes him ever more dangerous in the secondary transition game as a finisher, to go with being able to get players such as Kevin Porter Jr., Dylan Windler and Collin Sexton early-clock looks, and feasibly via some cross-matching, even.

Anyhow, what’s apparent after what Nance has shown over the past two seasons after signing a four-year contract extension before 2018-19 is that his arrow is pointing up, and he’ll likely take another step forward.

So what are a few realistic expectations for him for 2020-21, then?

We’ll hit on those two for Nance here.

The first has to do with him affecting games in a number of ways.