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

By and large, Nance has filled in decently for the Cavs

Nance’s perimeter shot has been the glaring weakness for him so far, which has been unfortunate for him and the Cavs offense in his time needing to fill in for Love at the interim starting 4.

That’s just facts, really, and Nance was one-for-six from the free throw line in Wednesday’s loss at the Orlando Magic, even, which was well, less than ideal.

Nance has contributed in a variety of other ways in filling in for Kevin Love, though, and Jr. has continued to demonstrate that he’s one of the Cavs’ best passers. That’s very apparent at this point, and it’s helped those around him often.

Defensively, Nance’s ability to cut off driving lanes against bigs has aided Cleveland’s defense in a number of instances, and his activity in the passing lanes/as a rotator has led to so many deflections/steals as was previously highlighted, and that’s been big for the Cavs.

Hopefully, he can regain some of his touch from deep that he showed last season, especially in what would be his close to that leading into the league’s prior COVID-19-induced hiatus.

But to me, Nance has done decently in fill-in starting 4 duty for Love, and if Cleveland can get healthier soon enough on the perimeter, we’ll see him get some easier looks more consistently in the paint.