Larry Nance Jr.’s injury is crushing blow for Cavs defense, playmaking

The Cleveland Cavaliers have had their share of rough injury luck this season, and just as they were appearing to be mostly healthy, or at least greatly healthier, another rough bit of injury luck came.

For a tad bit of background on the player that came for should be mentioned first, though. Larry Nance Jr. had been banged up in regards to a right wrist sprain, and although he played on Saturday in Cleveland’s second leg of a home back-to-back versus the Milwaukee Bucks, he was not nearly his full self offensively in that one.

Nance still, in the games he had played in since his wrist injury was initially suffered/on Saturday was hesitant to shoot from the perimeter, but he was active in other ways. He still was aiding Cleveland’s passing efforts to an extent, too.

Albeit another Cavs injury came involving Nance, per a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst on Sunday. Nance is expected to miss the next four-to-six weeks because of a fractured finger on his left hand and will “likely undergo surgery.” Yikes.

Along with that Wojnarowski/Windhorst report, a Cavs team status update stated how Nance fractured the fourth metacarpal in his left hand, which was the same injury Dylan Windler suffered earlier this season. Per the Cavs, Jr. is set to be out for approximately the six-week realm.

That reportedly happened in the first quarter of Saturday’s L to the Bucks, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, and for context, as Fedor noted, Windler was sidelined for 13 games because of that injury.

Nance’s injury is a crushing blow for the Cavs defense and playmaking.

Nance has been Cleveland’s starting 4 on most occasions this season with Kevin Love having been sidelined due to a high-grade right calf strain he reaggravated on Dec. 27 in a win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

On the year, Nance has had 9.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.9 steals in 33.4 minutes per outing. And although since the wrist injury we didn’t see it, really, Nance has still hit a career-best, on the season, 38.1 percent from three-point range, and had been further solidifying himself as a solid spot-up threat.

Unfortunately, it appears that Nance will miss at least the rest of the first half of Cleveland’s 2020-21 schedule, and again, could be sidelined seemingly through most of March. That’s not including the league’s March 5-10 All-Star break, though, on a brief positive note, one could say.

Anyhow, this Nance injury is again, a crushing blow for the Cavaliers defense and to their playmaking efforts. Nance is second in the league in steals (1.9) and deflections per game (3.9), the latter of which is per NBA.com’s player hustle data.

Nance’s feel for playing passing lanes and his timing for deflecting entry feeds to cutters and baiting opponents on the weak side, while still being in the right position to contest on the interior/on his primary matchups was crucial.

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That aided players such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Isaac Okoro and others, and it also enabled Cleveland, whose been fourth in the league in steals per outing, to get more transition opportunities.

Andre Drummond, whose fourth in the league in deflections per game at 3.4, and has had 1.6 steals per outing, has aided those efforts, too, and those guys, along with Okoro and Collin Sexton, to an extent, have been key in that realm.

Sans Nance, though, players such as Taurean Prince and I’d think even two-way guy Lamar Stevens will have to have more of a role against opposing 4’s.

Albeit Stevens has made his presence felt defensively, when the opportunities have arisen, on the plus side, and his thick 230 pound-frame has enabled him to hold his own inside pretty well, and he’s had a respectable 5.4 defensive rebounds per-36 minutes.

In relation to the offensive end when it comes to Nance, this is a significant blow from the playmaking perspective, as we hit on, additionally.

The career-high in minutes per game due to the Love injury have been the reasoning, but Nance has tied a career-best in assists per outing with 3.2 thus far, and he did a more than commendable job in that realm. Nance has had a pretty solid 13.4 assist rate to this point, too.

On a bit of a positive note, although it’s reportedly “highly unlikely” that Love will be playing in the Cavs upcoming West road trip, he has been coming along regarding his recovery and has of earlier this week, has started up basketball activities again. He’ll still seemingly be out for a stretch here, however, but there’s no set timetable at this point for Love.

Moreover, with this Nance injury, while they haven’t been a successful offensive pairing, to say the least, we’ll probably see some Jarrett Allen-Andre Drummond lineups at times.

Let’s hope the Cavs can still have Drummond full buy-in, though, and he’s had a notable impact inside, clearly, and I give him his credit for that. But with the expiring Drummond having been a key subject of trade rumors, the potential Cavs trade hypotheticals with him will likely only be more prevalent going forward, with a brutal part of Cleveland’s schedule ahead.

We’ll have to see, albeit with the way things are shaping up, also factoring in this Nance injury, Cleveland could seemingly have another high draft pick to come. I don’t know if that will end up being a top five one, per se, though.

Anyhow, I hope Nance can recover fully in due time from this injury, as the 28-year-old is one of Cleveland’s most important players.