Larry Nance Jr. – Cleveland Cavaliers
Andre Drummond seems like the most likely player to be on the move for the Cavaliers since he is in the final year of his contract, but Larry Nance Jr. is a player a bunch of playoff caliber teams have been eyeing recently. The 28-year old forward is now in his 6th season in the league and has been out since February 6th with a fractured finger.
With him expected to be 100% to start the second half of the season, plenty of teams have started reaching out to Cleveland about a potential trade for Nance Jr, one of those teams being the Washington Wizards. With them not having much frontcourt depth, the Wizards have expressed plenty of interest in Larry Nance Jr. making them a team that could potentially look to acquire him at the trade deadline.
As of right now, the Cleveland Cavaliers have not made their intentions clear on whether or not they want to “sell” a bunch of their players, but Larry Nance Jr. would definitely come at a high-price on the trade market. He has consistently been getting better and tougher as an interior rebounder and given what he can do in the paint, the Wizards would have to be willing to give up a fair amount of assets to acquire him.
Bringing in Larry Nance Jr. not only gives Washington a strong rebounder, but a frontcourt player who is comfortable guarding virtually anybody. Nance Jr. has always been a really solid defender and one of his better attributes is his ability to disrupt passing lanes and cause turnovers. He is averaging 1.9 steals per game this season and is very active defensively.
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Washington is not a very good defensive team this season, as they give up the second-most points to opponents (119.1 PAPG), which is one of the main reasons why adding Larry Nance Jr. makes sense. Not to mention, they have an overall lack of talent on their roster and adding Nance Jr. to be their third “go-to” scorer could be beneficial for both sides.
Creating fast-break opportunities is one of the strengths of his game and with the Wizards being an up-tempo offensive team with Westbrook pushing the ball in transition, Larry Nance Jr. could be a perfect addition for them. He is definitely worth investing a first-round pick and a younger talent in, especially since the Wizards need more talent on their roster if they are to make the playoffs at this rate.
