Los Angeles Lakers will regret trading Larry Nance Jr.

Midway through the 2017-18 season, the Los Angeles Lakers traded Larry Nance Jr., along with Jordan Clarkson, to Cleveland in a deal that helped clear cap space to go after Lebron James and other impactful free agents. They may have made a mistake by trading Nance.

This has been one of the greatest offseasons in Los Angeles Lakers history. They added savvy, experienced vets such as Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee and Michael Beasley, and they also re-signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who had a very solid season in 2017-18. Oh, and they signed this guy named LeBron James who I’ve heard is a pretty good player too.

But two glaring weaknesses weren’t really addressed this summer: 3-point shooting and the center position.

The Lakers finished 29th in 3-point shooting last season, however, they really improved later in the season. Several of their young guys showed growth in their ability to hit treys. They may not be a great 3-point shooting team this season, but they shouldn’t be that bad either.

The center position, though, looks like an even bigger deficiency for the Lakers. They have only one traditional center in McGee who can defend and rebound at a solid level. Other than that, they’ll be relying on Lebron to masquerade as a 5, or on unproven and untested kids like Ivica Zubac and Moritz Wagner to hold down the fort.

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This is one department where Larry Nance Jr. could’ve helped the Lakers moving forward. He’s 6-foot-9 and weighs 230 lbs, giving him the height, girth and strength to play the 5 in today’s NBA.

In three seasons, the 25-year-old son of former NBA star and Slam Dunk champion Larry Nance Sr. has proven himself to be an effective energy and glue guy whose impact goes beyond his stats.

The younger Nance’s basic stats don’t exactly jump off your computer screen. 7.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per game for his career. However, he has done this while playing only 21.5 minutes per game.

If you extrapolate his numbers, he averaged 15.4 points, 12.1 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.3 blocks per 36 minutes this past season. That stacks up favorably with other centers whose role is to defend, rebound and protect the rim.

Looking at his advanced stats, you can see that he is clearly an asset to his team. Last season, his BPM (box plus/minus) was 3.3, which was higher than quality defensive centers such as Clint Capela (3.0), DeAndre Jordan (2.1), Hassan Whiteside (0.2) and even Dwight Howard (-0.3), who had a mini-renaissance year for Charlotte.

As we also saw, Nance is very athletic. Like his dad, he has major hops, which he has put on display several times by serving up facials on opposing players.

The Lakers, just like last season, plan on being a fast break team. However, there is an old basketball axiom that you cannot run if you don’t have the ball. With the departure of Nance, as well as Julius Randle, who averaged 8.0 rebounds a game last season, the Lakers may be lacking a bit on the boards.

Keeping Nance could’ve really helped in this area. He’s a player who brings intangibles onto the court, and you can always count on him to give it his all and maximize every drop of the talent that the universe gifted him with.

Plus, since he’s only 25 years old, so he has time to expand his offensive game and perhaps add enough of a 3-point shot to keep defenses honest and improve the value he brings to his team.

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Nance is signed for the 2018-19 season at just $2.3 million, so it wouldn’t have hurt the Lakers all that much financially to keep him. He’s scheduled to become a free agent next summer, so maybe on July 1, 2019, the purple and gold should give him a call and invite him back to the City of Angels.

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