Larry Nance Jr. is a freakishly athletic and exciting young player in the NBA who was seemingly becoming more skilled and developed by the day.
Unfortunately that development will have to be put on hold as Nance Jr. fractured his left hand in the 3rd quarter of the Lakers game in Portland Thursday night and is out indefinitely.
He will be evaluated by team doctors Friday morningat which time a timeline will be established for his return.
Nance had usurped the starting power forward role from Julius Randle and was averaging 10.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game for the season, while meshing well with rookie point guard Lonzo Ball.
This is a big blow to a Lakers team showing some promise, but they have a bit of a logjam of young talent at the position anyway as Nance, Julius Randle and rookie Kyle Kuzma were all fighting for minutes and playing well in limited time.
Walton seems to like having Randle be the featured player on the Lakers second unit so Kuzma may take over Nance’s starting role, but you can expect Randle to get a slight minutes advantage over the rookie.
Here is to hoping Nance Jr. has a speedy recovery and is posterizing opposing players in the near future.
