Larry Nance Jr. is a Cleveland Cavaliers player on an upward trajectory.
Larry Nance Jr. looks to be one of the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ best players looking onward. In 2019-20, he had yet another career-best with 10.1 points per outing, to go with having 7.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.0 steals per contest.
Nance has taken notable strides with his offensive game in his first two full seasons with Cleveland after being acquired via trade from the Los Angeles near the 2018 deadline, and that’s been a pleasure to watch.
After showing the capability with some volume to hit three-point looks in 2018-19, Nance took that a step further last season, and hit 35.2 percent of his 2.8 triple attempts per outing, via spot-ups, mostly. Plus, Nance displayed a much improved handle last season, and that should only aid him more as a scorer/big secondary playmaker for the Cavs.
Nonetheless, while I wouldn’t think the Cavaliers have discussed it, realistically, it seems as though Nance has been mentioned around the NBA as a potential trade target.
Previously, The Athletic‘s John Hollinger (subscription required), mentioned in a report how Nance, whose formally set to make $11.7 million next season for now, would be the “most obvious target” really, via trade, for the Boston Celtics.
That’s factoring in an eventual Jayson Tatum rookie scale max contract extension/luxury tax dilemma from there in 2021-22, and seemingly weighing if Enes Kanter were to pick up his $5 million player option for next season. Boston, as Hollinger hit on, is also looking to deal 2020 first-round picks, of which they have three.
As far a hypothetical package, Hollinger suggested Boston acquire Nance, in exchange for Boston’s #14 pick, Kanter and big Vincent Poirier, whose unproven at this point. In relation to that, previously I detailed why the Cavs shouldn’t be considering that deal.
That said, according to a report from ESPN’s Zach Lowe, it appears that Nance has popped up in trade discussions around the NBA, of which he mentioned Chris Paul, Danilo Gallinari and Dennis Schroeder, albeit the scenarios aren’t an exact comparison.
But here was more on what Lowe noted from that, and his report, he confirmed how reports about the C’s wanting to move up in the upcoming draft are “accurate,” though it’d seem they could be in the market for an established player, too.
"“Reports that Boston has explored trading its three first-round picks — Nos. 14, 26, and 30 — to move up are accurate, sources say, but not surprising. Teams with that many picks explore everything; Boston has also sniffed around using picks to acquire a solid veteran, sources say. There are few such veterans available in future-for-present deals with almost the whole league trying to win. This is why you hear Larry Nance Jr.‘s name a lot across the league — in addition to the big names in Oklahoma City (Paul, Gallinari, and Dennis Schroder). Schroder would draw strong interest, sources say.”"
It’s tough to foresee the Cavaliers sharing that take involving Nance, though.
The Cavs shouldn’t seriously consider trading Nance for three reasons.
We’ll highlight the first reason next.