Somehow the fact that Larry Nance Jr. is shooting 60% from the field this season completely escaped my notice. I never envisioned him as one of those hyper-efficient players that teams covet, but I guess he is now. Maybe it’s because he’s a power forward, and not an especially big one, while most guys with field goal percentages in that range are centers.
Nance’s main enemy when it comes to minutes is, of course, Julius Randle, but the thing is, when you look at a list of Lakers players sorted by win-shares per 48 minutes, Nance and Randle are the only rotation players who are above .100 (Nance is way above it at .188, nearing elite levels). So, even though Laker fans want Randle traded for whatever they can get, and even though Nance isn’t the kind of high-scoring forward that is valued these days, the power forward position is actually the position where the Lakers have the fewest problems.