What can the veteran big man give the team?
As the Atlanta Hawks will go into the season with a few different players on the roster, it’s important to see how those pieces will fit on the team and help them become successful.
Larry Nance Jr. was a part of the trade that sent Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans, and he was actually the first player reported that was being sent to Atlanta before all of the details were flushed out. Nance has had a solid career in the league and has developed his game to become more of a stretch big who can score inside-out.
The Hawks and Quin Snyder have emphasized putting the bigs in situations that can open up the floor, and that was more evident last year when the centers were playing more up the court than staying in the paint for an entire possession. Nance won’t have that problem because he has experience running dribble-handoffs, something he did a lot in his time on the Pelicans.
In this clip, Nance doesn’t dribble but hands off the ball to Trey Murphy III. Nance holds the screen for a minute and rolls as Murphy passes it back to him at the free-throw line. He’s then able to take one dribble and drive in the lane for an easy layup.
Nance shows more of his bag in this clip. He runs a DHO with Jose Alvarado, and he sets two screens for him. Alvarado dishes the passes to Nance, and he gives Jaylin Williams a bump to take away his verticality. Nance then goes up and hits a hook shot over Williams. The Hawks will need that type of versatility at the center position, and DHOs can help players like Trae Young and Bogdan Bogdanovic get easy looks.
In this clip, Nance runs a DHO with Brandon Ingram, and he creates enough space to pull up for the mid-range shot. These are the type of plays that will do wonders for the Hawks on offense. It helps that players like Young and Bogdanovic can make good passes as well, and they can trust Nance to make a play if he has to.
Nance can also step out and shoot threes, but only if he needs to. He shot around one three per game last year and made 41 percent of them.
In this clip, Nance just relocates to the three as CJ McCollum drives in the lane. Chet Holmgren prioritizes stopping McCollum rather than stepping out to the perimeter, and Nance gets the ball and knocks down the corner shot.
On defense, Nance isn’t known for blocking shots, but he gets his hands on the balls for steals. Last season he averaged a steal per game and has averaged 1.2 per game in his career.
In this clip, Josh Giddey tries to drive on Nance and uses his quick hands to swipe down and steal the ball from the guard. For a player like Nance, his quick instincts to get the ball are solid, and if he can create turnovers consistently, he’ll see the court, even if it’s just for a few minutes.
The Hawks got a good player in Lance, and it’ll be interesting to see what his role looks like on the team when the season starts.