Cavaliers approach to a cold and likely unforgiving post-LeBron world has been much different the second time around.
They blew it up (it had really blown up already honestly) the last time around and embraced bottoming out in order to get high draft picks to rebuild. It worked pretty well (even though they had a colossal whiff on Anthony Bennett and lukewarm return on Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters) as they landed a superstar in Kyrie Irving, lucked into another No. 1 pick in Andrew Wiggins and were able to use that to entice LeBron James return and acquire Kevin Love.
This time they have decided to extend Kevin Love’s contract and make him the face of the franchise and keep their veteran core (some of them not really by choice, ahem J.R. Smith, ahem) to stay competitive and possibly even be a playoff team in the eastern conference.
One of the two assets they acquired in the deal that ultimately cleared the way for LeBron to bolt to LA (still blows my mind) was a springy and active young big man Larry Nance Jr.
He played well in a limited role, averaging 8.9 points, 7.7 rebounds 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game for the Cavaliers last season.
That is enough for the Cavaliers to want to keep him in the fold.
#Cavs hoping to sign Larry Nance Jr. to long-term deal, there's confidence deal will get done.
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) September 25, 2018
It doesn’t hurt that he is the son and shares a name with a Cavaliers legend, Larry Nance.
Re-signing Nance is a solid move for the Cavaliers provided he is not overpaid. Somewhere in the range of four years, $32 million feels right.
