The Wood Shop: I’m Looking At You Larry

(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

I’ll gladly admit I didn’t watch Larry Nance Jr. during his tenure with the Lakers, aside from whatever highlights landed on Twitter. Now, that I’ve watched him for just three games with the Cavs, I’m pretty impressed. Initially, I thought he was going to be more of a defensive guy for the Cavs.

Don’t get me wrong, he is in some ways, but it’s really only because I had to watch terrible defenders who give zero effort for so much of the season. He does what Tristan Thompson used to do defensively: he can switch onto a point guard and not get smoked, and he’ll stop guys from getting deep into the paint on pick and rolls.  He also gives nonstop effort. And, he’s actually quite good at getting steals. With the Lakers in 42 games this year, he averaged 1.4 steals a game from the bench. Or, as cleaningtheglass.com puts it, he gets a steal on 2.8% of all plays he’s on the floor for, which is in the 99th percentile for his position. As you know, a steal means that your team gets the ball back. For an offensively gifted team like the Cavs that’s really awesome because they can score the ball better than pretty much any team in the league. Cleaningtheglass.com has them ranked fifth. Their stats eliminate garbage time and halfcourt heaves to beat the clock. Thankfully for Cleveland, the offensive end of the floor is where Larry has shown the most promise.

Let’s look at some plays from his time with the Cavs.

In the play above, Larry receives the ball from Jordan Clarkson around the left elbow. He then takes two hard dribbles towards the right elbow as Rodney Hood begins to run from the weak side corner to get a dribble hand-off from him. Along the way, in weave style motion action, Kyle Korver sets a nasty screen to take out Hood’s defender, Jerami Grant.

This is a basic play. Nance makes it special though by setting the screen for the sake of setting the screen and not trying to score. This does a few things.  First, since Nance doubles up Korver’s screen, he makes sure that Grant can’t get a block from behind if Hood shoots the ball. Secondly, since Nance keeps Grant so far behind the play, Steven Adams has to try to stop any penetration from Nance as well as shots and drives from Hood. Well, that’s impossible to do. If Adams comes out on Hood, Hood will blow by him, and if he stays back, Hood will shoot the 3, which is what he does in this instance. By having Korver involved in the play, that assures that Paul George him can’t help out Adams if Nance rolls because that would leave a world class 3-point shooter open. Guess what, that leaves Nance free to roll to the rim. Look how open he is. Hood could have easily hit him for a highlight level dunk if he choose to not shoot. It’s not as common as you think for guys to set a solid screen and stay committed to it. Nance does this consistently. Also, look when George realizes he has to fight for a possible rebound against Nance. Yea, it’s not going to work out well. Nance gets in an advantageous position with ease.

In the next play, Nance shows a skill that actually beat the Cavs in the 2015 Finals. It’s the ability to pass out of the short roll. Remember all those screens Draymond Green set for Stephen Curry that the Cavs were forced to trap on to keep Curry from raining 3s?  After the trap, Green would roll and catch the ball around the foul line before finding a shooter in the corner for an open 3, because some Cavalier was helping off their corner assignment to stop a free Green layup.

Look at this play. Jordan Clarkson runs a pick and roll with Nance. Big and slow Raymond Felton has no chance of stopping Clarkson. So, Jerami Grant traps him softly to give Felton help. Clarkson then finds Nance barreling towards the rim, but Adams is coming Nance’s way. Nance smartly realizes this and finds Hood in the corner almost instantly. He knows he’s passing the ball to Hood before he even gets it from Clarkson. Sure, Adams shouldn’t be on Hood anyways, but the Thunder are executing the proper defensive method when springing a trap. Someone on a guy in the corner has to crash onto the roll man to stop an uncontested dunk. They then have to sprint back to the corner to stop a possible 3. In this case, Hood misses the shot. The thought process is there though. Teams will trap LeBron James in the pick and roll at some point this year in the playoffs. Nance will almost surely have sweet dimes when teams try that defensive strategy.

The last thing to discuss with Nance relates back to his ability to get steals and extra possessions. Nance is an absolute animal on the offensive boards. He snagged 11.7% of the Lakers’ misses this year, which is in the 88th percentile for centers according to cleaningtheglass.com. To put that in perspective, Tristan snagged 13.4% of the Cavs misses during the year they won the Finals which placed him in the 95th percentile. This season he’s in the 82nd percentile. That’s still not bad, but’s it not peak TT.

Check out this offensive rebound against the Thunder. Nance sets a screen on the dribble hand-off and then rolls. He rolls despite Clarkson launching the 3 instantly. He almost always follows through on his screens and refuses to let teams get easy defensive boards.

It’s a huge advantage for the Cavs to have another guy that will get them more chances to score. Scoring is their forte these days and Nance will make them even better at that. And, maybe combining him with the other new talents on the Cavs will help the defense just enough to get another parade this summer.

Editor’s Update (From Tom):

I found the videos of the play I was referencing and figured I’d add it to David’s already-awesome Wood Shop piece.

Moments later

These showcase Nance’s ability to give LeBron some space with a wide, committed screen, and his own gravity as a hard rolling dive man.  With his abilities and commitment to the PnR, it could open up the Cavs to start playing around with Horns Rub again if they want to become a fully operational battle station. http://www.basketballinsiders.com/nba-pm-the-play-that-almost-doomed-toronto/