The Portland Trail Blazers need something to spice up their offense, and Larry Nance Jr. could be the key
In every single game so far, there’s been some stretches where the Blazers can’t buy a bucket, or even a good look at one for that matter.
The individual greatness of CJ McCollum, Damian Lillard, and at times, Anfernee Simons, has helped mitigate these cold spells where Portland’s offense suffers extreme cases of laziness.
While there’s been a palpable focus on passing, most of the Blazers offense has returned to read-and-react off of pick-and-rolls or isolations for their top scoring options.
This makes it easy for the offense to bog down when one of Dame or CJ isn’t cooking.
The motion offense was supposed to fix this issue, but Billups has seemingly tabled the system change for the time being. Which is fine. The Blazers have more than enough talent on offense to survive without drastic systematic overhauls.
What I do have a quarrel with is Larry Nance Jr.’s role in the offense so far. LNJ was labeled a fantastic offseason addition, and it wasn’t just for his versatile defense.
He’s also lethal as a roll man, an underrated playmaker, and has the ability to space the floor. Thus far, Billups has only utilized that last aspect, sticking LNJ in the corner.
Nance is too talented to simply stand in the corner and wait for open triples. Deploying him as a roller will provide the Blazers with a vertical spacing element that they don’t have with Jusuf Nurkic or Cody Zeller setting screens. When the defense doubles the ball-handler, Nance is the best option Portland has to make a play off of the short roll.
So far, Nance has found most of his touches in transition or through offensive rebounds. Let’s hope we see an active change in that aspect soon.