Lakers forward Larry Nance Jr. has beaten the timetable for recovering from a broken bone in his left hand and is expected to return to the court Monday, according to Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times. Nance was originally projected to be out four to six weeks after the November 2 injury, which affected his second metacarpal. Coach Luke Walton plans to insert him in the starting lineup right away.
“I think our rebounding’s gone down,” Walton said. “Just the versatility at that four spot, the way we like to play, him being able to defend multiple positions. Obviously he’s got some years in the league. For a young team that’s pretty valuable. Larry’s great at doing all the little things that help teams win that don’t get a lot of credit. And he’s got the ability and the skill to do the fancy things too.”
There’s more today out of Los Angeles:
- The Lakers remain committed to keeping Lonzo Ball as their starting point guard despite the ups and downs of his rookie season, Ganguli writes in a separate story. Ball has notched two triple-doubles, but he hasn’t solved his shooting problems. At 31.5% from the field, his shooting percentage is the lowest among rookies playing at least 10 minutes per game. “The benefit is he gets the game experience,” Walton said of his decision to keep Ball in the starting lineup. “Whether it’s close games, it’s blowouts, it’s playing against top elite point guards that do different things.”
- Injuries have decimated the Clippers during the first six weeks of the season, but coach Doc Rivers refuses to let any of his players return to the court until they’re fully ready, relays Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. Starting forward Danilo Gallinari missed his ninth straight game Saturday with a strained glute. He has been traveling with the team on its five-game road trip, but still is not able to play. “Gallo is not coming back until he’s right,” Rivers said. “We’re not going to rush anybody back. I don’t care what situation you’re in. Not only is it going to make it worse, because then he’ll come back and get injured, or any of our guys. That’s one thing we’ll never do.” Patrick Beverley is already lost for the season after knee surgery and Milos Teodosic is expected to be out until after Christmas with a plantar fascia injury in his left foot.
- The Clippers shouldn’t consider a maximum offer for center DeAndre Jordan if he opts out of his nearly $24.12MM salary for next season, writes ESPN’s Kevin Pelton. Jordan, 29, will be in the 35% max category and will be eligible for a deal worth about $205MM over five years. The Clippers could be aided by the market as few teams will be in position to offer a max deal and not many of them need centers.
DeAndre will find it tough to get a max contract from anyone. Way too many centers on the market right now. Not to mention the position has been minimized over the last couple of years. Throw in how he handled his last foray into free agency and I don’t see teams opening up the bank vault for him.
He’s not worth a penny more than he is currently making which is too much.
Does anyone know why my posts get submitted multiple times?
It doesn’t actually show twice, it’s a common issue with the app. It’s only viewable to you twice, others only see it once. Also, sometimes a comment won’t show for a commenter at all, and then they post again, only for the first one to show up again. The comments on the app are pretty buggy, but the content is so good and commenting isn’t overly problematic so these aren’t dealbreaker issues for me.
Thank you.
Wow that was really helpful and pleasantly stated! (We could use more of that!)
Haha I know right!