Cavs: Taurean Prince will have to step up sans Larry Nance Jr.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been no strangers to the injury bug this season, as us fans of the Wine and Gold are well aware of at this point.

The Cavaliers were dealing with injuries to their guard group earlier on in the campaign, and now, the Wine and Gold are going to be without two natural 4’s.

Kevin Love has been progressing when it comes to his high-grade right calf strain, on the plus side, but Love it’s still reportedly “highly unlikely” that we see Love in action during the Cavs upcoming West road trip.

And unfortunately, in what was crushing news on Sunday, per a Cavs team press release, Larry Nance Jr. is expected to miss approximately six weeks due to a fractured fourth metacarpal on his left hand. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst first reported how Nance was set to miss four-to-six weeks and will “likely undergo surgery.”

That fourth metacarpal injury, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, happened during the first quarter of Cleveland’s loss on Saturday to the Milwaukee Bucks. And as Fedor noted, Dylan Windler, who suffered the same injury in Cleveland’s first game this season, missed 13 games.

The Cavs not having Nance, though, who was seemingly banged up even because of a right wrist sprain, is clearly a crushing blow, particularly regarding the club’s defensive and playmaking efforts.

Nance, to a large extent, has done a nice job in an interim starting 4 role for Love, and has had 9.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. He has been second in the league in steals per game (1.9) and deflections per game (3.9), the latter of which is per NBA.com’s player hustle data.

And although it wasn’t seen since the wrist sprain, Nance was further solidifying himself as a solid spot-up threat, as evidenced by him thus far hitting a career-high 38.1 percent of his three-point attempts this season.

With Nance out, though, and Love still sidelined, it’s evident that Taurean Prince, who has started at times at the 4 for Cleveland in instances Nance hasn’t been available, will well, need to get it done more there.

Sans Nance, the Cavs will need Prince to step up in a big way.

At this point, given that Nance again had been banged up even before the news from Sunday, and with Love sidelined, we’ve seen Prince often at the 4 with the Cavs so far.

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Last season, Prince was at the 4 a bunch with the Brooklyn Nets with Kevin Durant sidelined, so one would expect Prince to fill in there often in this upcoming stretch. That was the case for 91 percent of the time last season.

When Love is back in the fold, though, one would think that Cleveland would likely have Prince at the 4 in stretches a fair amount, anyhow. Thus far, that’s been 75 percent of his minutes to this point; again, that’s due to the injury situation, but it’s not something the 6-foot-7 Prince isn’t necessarily unfamiliar with.

In this upcoming road trip for the Cavs, for instance, the Cavaliers will clearly need Prince to step up even more so, really.

He’s done a solid job for the Wine and Gold since being dealt from the Nets, though, and while Prince isn’t nearly Jarrett Allen as a contributor, he’s done a decent job defensively, and has proven himself to be very viable offensively.

In that realm, Taurean’s had 9.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 25.9 minutes per contest, and most notably, has hit 44.7 percent of his three-point attempts.

While that three-point hit rate will in time come down, some, as Prince has been up and down, really, in recent seasons, he should aid the likes of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and others in his minutes-share.

Moreover, while the Cavs will feasibly go with Jarrett Allen-Andre Drummond lineups at times, at with Love sidelined on occasion, it’s again apparent that Prince will have a key role for upcoming games, and looking onward.

Hopefully Prince can answer the bell here in a big way, but again, it’s apparent overall that the Cavaliers have an awfully tough stretch ahead, and Nance’s injury is yet another injury blow, of which have been nothing new this season.

Prince has definitely been a very nice pickup, either way, though.