{"id":115054,"date":"2024-12-30T15:44:14","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T20:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=115054"},"modified":"2024-12-30T15:44:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T20:44:14","slug":"hawks-larry-nance-jr-surgery-how-replace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/30\/hawks-larry-nance-jr-surgery-how-replace\/","title":{"rendered":"10-Year Veteran Needs Surgery, How Will Hawks Replace Him?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, the Atlanta Hawks sent out an official press release announcing that veteran forward-center Larry Nance Jr.<\/a>\u00a0\u201csustained a right hand injury\u201d during their matchup against the Miami Heat on Dec. 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cImaging has confirmed a fractured fourth metacarpal bone in his right hand,\u201d the release adds. The 31-year-old \u201cwill undergo surgery on Thursday, Jan. 2 to repair the fracture. His timeline for return will be provided following surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

10-Year Veteran Larry Nance Jr. Needs Surgery, How Will Hawks Replace Him?<\/h2>\n

Nance was one of the principal pieces<\/a> in the Hawks\u2019 offseason trade involving Dyson Daniels<\/a> and Dejounte Murray<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though the versatile big man hasn\u2019t gotten off to as sensational a start<\/a> as the Aussie, he\u2019s been a valuable addition to Atlanta. Off the court, his leadership and camaraderie<\/a> has come to be appreciated by his team. On it, he\u2019s a connector and multi-positional defender who\u2019s knocking down a career-high 52.0 percent of his three-balls.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s been a healthy scratch in several games, the Hawks will definitely notice his absence. Atlanta doesn\u2019t really have another player like breakout star Jalen Johnson<\/a>. However, Nance is able to do much of what Johnson could as a two-way playmaker with fluid mobility. He doesn\u2019t have the aggressive scoring mindset that Johnson possesses but he could come off the bench for him in a pinch.<\/p>\n

Because Nance wasn\u2019t a full-time rotation player, it\u2019ll be easier to navigate his injury than if it were one more essential to their success. Nonetheless, the Hawks do like their depth to parallel each other, which is why Vit Krejci<\/a> and Garrison Mathews<\/a> can fill in for Daniels and Bogdan Bogdanovic<\/a> respectively and their wheels keep spinning.<\/p>\n

Dealer\u2019s Choice<\/h3>\n

Atlanta has three options if they want to replace Nance internally.<\/p>\n

The first option is to move 2020 No. 6 pick Onyeka Okongwu<\/a> to more of a hybrid big role while inviting Cody Zeller<\/a> to return to the team as their backup center. Okongwu\u2019s athleticism and defensive upside makes this a sound option. However, because Zeller hasn\u2019t been with the team all season, it may take him some time to get up to speed.<\/p>\n

Their second option is to give more minutes to David Roddy<\/a>. A stocky combo forward at 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, Roddy\u2019s made a career-high 39.3 percent of his threes this season. The main problem is that Roddy\u2019s not as versatile as Nance defensively. Nonetheless, when compared to the first hypothetical, the Hawks would have better spacing and chemistry.<\/p>\n

The third choice is to promote 2023 No. 39 pick Mouhamed Gueye<\/a> or Dominick Barlow<\/a>, both of whom spend most of their time with the College Park Skyhawks, to a rotation spot. Gueye is a lean stretch-big with two-way upside<\/a> but has needed to pack on muscle. Barlow, who\u2019s on a two-way contract, has a thicker frame than Gueye but isn\u2019t quite as skilled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, the Atlanta Hawks sent out an official press release announcing that veteran forward-center Larry Nance Jr.\u00a0\u201csustained a right hand injury\u201d during their matchup against the Miami Heat on Dec. 28. \u201cImaging has confirmed a fractured fourth metacarpal bone in his right hand,\u201d the release adds. The 31-year-old \u201cwill undergo surgery on Thursday, Jan. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":115068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1608,62,3],"tags":[547,4525,49398,3853,526,49104,2830],"class_list":["post-115054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-cody-zeller","tag-david-roddy","tag-dominick-barlow","tag-jalen-johnson","tag-larry-nance-jr","tag-mouhamed-gueye","tag-onyeka-okongwu"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115069,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115054\/revisions\/115069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}