Cavs: The good, bad thus far of Larry Nance Jr. starting stints

Larry Nance Jr. has been starting at the 4 for the Cleveland Cavaliers sans Kevin Love.

It’s less than ideal that the Cleveland Cavaliers are currently without Kevin Love, who is still set to be sidelined for roughly two-to-weeks with a right calf strain he reaggravated on Dec. 27 versus the Philadelphia 76ers. After that timetable, he’ll be re-evaluated.

Sans Love, Larry Nance Jr., who would’ve played a bunch anyway, was thrust into Cleveland’s starting 4 role in the interim. He’s been fine, from my perspective.

At this point, Nance has contributed in a variety of ways, as he typically has done in his time with the Cavs, and more so the past two-plus seasons. Nance, who was acquired via trade from the Los Angeles Lakers near the 2018 deadline, and was extended before the 2018-19 season for the long term, is clearly one of the Cavs’ best players.

Swinging back, though, how has Nance done in the interim so far in place of Love as Cleveland’s starting 4?

We’ll hit on the good and bad of Nance’s play as a Cavs starter thus far here.

Let’s begin with the positives.

The good for the Cavs: Nance’s playmaking, defense and hustle

When it comes to the good in his role as a starter, and overall, really, Nance’s playmaking has been a big positive. So far, it’s very early still, as we know, but Nance has averaged his career-best with 4.4 assists per outing.

That from him has been crucial for pieces such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Andre Drummond and Cedi Osman, for instance. Nance has made plays from the wing in hitting cutters/at times Drummond as a diver, has made logical extra passes and his feel for making productive skip passes has been key for Cleveland.

His assist rate of 17.0 percent, and keep in mind he’s started seven of eight games, is tied for third on the Cavs with Sexton.

And with the Cavaliers so banged up right now, such as Garland potentially missing up to a week with a right shoulder sprain as of Wednesday and Dante Exum being expected to miss six-to-eight weeks with a right calf strain, that playmaking from Nance is big.

Sexton hurt his left ankle on Wednesday at the Orlando Magic, and the Cavs will “keep an eye on it” going into the second leg of a back-to-back at the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday, per Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and via Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. Albeit given the Cavs being so thin right now, I’d think Collin will play.

We’ll have to see on Damyean Dotson, too, who hurt his ankle at Orlando as well near halftime, but hurt that again in the third quarter and didn’t return. One would think he could be sidelined; the Cavs are so down on available bodies, though.

Circling back to Nance, though, along with that playmaking, Nance’s defense has been crucial for the Cavs, who’ve gotten off to a 4-4 start. Nance has done an admirable job in his primary matchups a fair amount of the time, and his team defensive/rotational feel has jumped out.

Nance has been big-time in generating steals, too. Again Nance has almost exclusively been a starter, and for reference, in that Philly game, he was starting at the 3.

Anyway, on the year, Nance has led the league in total steals with 19, and has led the league in total deflections with 41, per NBA.com’s player hustle tracking data. That’s aided the Wine and Gold in getting buckets in the open floor for players such as himself, Sexton and others.

Along with the playmaking and defensive contributions, Nance’s hustle has been important for the Cavs’ efforts. We know he does the little things to help the squad in a general sense, such as being an active on and off-ball screener, and him being able to recover loose balls has aided the group.

We often see Nance helping Andre Drummond/the team’s defensive rebounding output, and in terms of loose balls, Nance is currently tied for fourth in the league in loose balls recovered with 11, again, per NBA.com’s player hustle data.

Next up, we’ll look at the bad for Nance thus far in his efforts as a starter for Love, mostly.