In our exclusive interview, the former Suns and Cavaliers forward discusses the new NBA season and LeBron James teaming up with his son Bronny.
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Your former team, the Suns, have run it back with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal – what are your expectations for their season?
Number one, they need to stay healthy. Secondly, with those three guys, I don’t see any reason why they can’t make a serious run at the championship.
If you have KD and Devin Booker then you’ve got a really good team and I’m a really big fan of them.
I think coach Budenholzer can find that winning formula. Once again, they have to stay healthy and anytime you have players like Durant and Booker on your team, you stand a good chance of beating anybody.
They’ve been in some close games so far and I know there’s a lot of really good teams in the league this year, but the Phoenix Suns are definitely one of them.
After some speculation in the offseason, do you see any chance that Durant will be traded this season if he and Booker cannot co-exist?
That’s a tough question to ask me because I’m a Kevin Durant fan and I’m also a major Booker fan too. So, I would do everything I could to make sure those two worked together.
They are both great guys and I do think that they work together so I would give them both another shot at least. That’s what I would do if I had to decide. I wouldn’t trade any of them two guys because it’s hard to replace them in this league.
Even at 36, KD is still one of the elite players right now and I think he’ll be one of the most elite players for quite a while still.
If I did trade KD, I can’t think of any player in the league that I would want back for him. I would just keep him.
Are the Suns missing a piece or two to challenge the best teams? Which players should they be looking to add?
I think a guy like Draymond Green, who can take the ball, distribute it to where it needs to go and get it to those elite guys like KD in order to make it easier for them.
The problem is they can’t have Draymond Green because the Golden State Warriors won’t want to let him go and there’s not many Draymonds in this league but if the Suns had a guy like that, I believe it would change them a lot and make them even better.
Seeing KD and Draymond team up again would be something too. They’d be fussing at each other but they’re both great players and it would be awesome to see them as teammates again.
The Cavaliers have made a fast start – what is their ceiling this year?
They have made a great start. They’re a healthy team and they need to stay that way.
They seem to love each other, and they seem to enjoy playing basketball with each other. Anytime you have a team that’s talented and they also enjoy playing together like the Cavs do, then the sky is the limit for them as far as I’m concerned.
What do you think of head coach Kenny Atkinson? Is he an upgrade on JB Bickerstaff?
I like coach Kenny Atkinson a lot. I liked Bickerstaff too as he had some great years in Cleveland, but they decided to move on to another coach.
Atkinson seems to have the Cavs doing really well and I like him a lot as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Like I said, I really think the sky is the limit for this year’s Cavs team and they seem to be improving.
There’s a lot of smiles going on in Cleveland on the court and anytime you see that, it’s definitely a good sign.
How do they match up with the Boston Celtics this year? Can they avenge last year’s playoff defeat?
If they match up with the Celtics again, I think the Cavs are going to win.
I think Jarrett Allen is a lot for the Celtics to deal with and not having him last year really hurt the Cavs.
Anytime you have Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and the other guys the Cavs have on one team, you got a great chance to win.
If both teams are healthy, I think the Cavaliers win this time.
The Cavs didn’t make any major roster moves in the summer – are there any trades you would like to see them make?
Last year, I think they would have been fine if they were healthy. I really appreciate a team that doesn’t always have to make a lot of changes to try and make themselves better.
I think the Cavs already have a good formula and they’ve really got some nice players on the bench too, so I like their depth.
I see no reason to panic and do things different like a lot of other teams do.
What are your expectations for your son Pete Nance this year? Can he make a break into the roster and establish a role?
He’s going to be on the charge. He’s worked really hard and I think the Cavs really like him.
He’s just got to go out there and continue to work hard and hopefully he gets his chance.
He brings a different aspect to the game because he’s a center that can step out and knock down the three, he’s a good passer and he understands the game of basketball very well.
So, I think he brings a lot to the table, but he’s got to continue to focus and work hard like he’s been doing. He’s getting stronger and I’m proud of him. I think he will get his shot, hopefully that will be with the Cavs and if not, I hope he gets one with another team in the league because he deserves it.
Have you spoken to Pete about the players’ expectations for the season? How are they looking in practice?
There is real excitement in Cleveland. Number one, the players are all good guys and even the coach, Pete loves him as he’s treated him with real class and respect.
Mitchell, Garland and the rest are all very good to Pete and they’re very good to each other too and you can see that when they’re out there playing with how they’re speaking to each other.
The key to basketball is moving the ball as defenses can’t keep up with the pass and this team realizes that and move the ball really well to the open guy who takes the shot.
Then you got those two big guys (Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley) protecting the paint, that just seems like fun basketball to me. I’m a little bit jealous, I wish I could play with those guys.
I’m a major fan of Donovan Mitchell. I’m a major fan of his off the court as well as on the court. He is a great kid. From talking to him I can tell he was really raised by some great parents because he’s a wonderful person.
One of the things I enjoy with Mitchell is that he’s a great scorer, but I love his passing. He makes some pretty awesome passes and I really enjoy him, he’s really good. He’s one of my favorite people in the NBA right now.
What have you made of the Lakers’ start to the season under JJ Redick? Are they contenders?
This could be a little break in period for the Lakers but I think JJ Redick is going to be a good coach.
Anytime you have LeBron James, you got a chance. He’s showed that over his career so you can never count him out and I think him and JJ Redick work really well together. If you have LeBron James, you have a chance to win it all.
Anthony Davis is one of the best bigs in the league too and has started the season really well. Redick will get him the ball in the spots that he likes, and he’ll probably be the leading scorer on that team, but LeBron will be facilitating that so I’m sure that’s a great combination there.
We all know LeBron and Davis can do it but they have some good young players on that team too. They’ve got a great leader (LeBron James) with some nice role players so I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t win the championship in Redick’s first year.
It’s going to be interesting though and I think this could be a great year across the whole NBA.
Do you see any signs of LeBron James slowing down?
I don’t see any signs of him slowing down.
What’s so amazing to me is how when he came into the league, he could get to the basket anytime he wants and now at 39, he can still get to the basket anytime he wants. I’ve watched him play over and over and I try to figure out how he does that. He’s just the best at it.
His knowledge of the game is second to none so again, anytime you have LeBron on your team, you got a shot.
I don’t think he’s slowing down at all, I know when I was his age I was really slow but he is not.
No one has ever done it this long like LeBron so he is probably the only one who can answer the question of when he decides to step away.
I don’t know how long he wants to continue to play but if he was playing for me, I wouldn’t run him out of the league, I’d let him play as long as he wanted to play.
What have you made of Lebron being able to play with his son Bronny James?
I’m a little jealous because I would’ve loved to be able to play with Larry Jr. and Pete.
That’s a heck of a gift to be able to do something like that. I’m glad that LeBron got to do that, and people got to see and enjoy it because it’s a wonderful thing to be as successful as LeBron is and be able to be on the court at the same time as your son. That will go down in history.
It was pretty cool to me and I’m jealous of it.
Would it be difficult to have your son in the locker room? Can you separate the relationship of father and teammate?
I don’t think I would change anything with my sons if they were in the locker room as my teammates.
We love to have fun in the locker rooms so we’d love to talk about each other and laugh at each other and I do the same thing with my kids when they’re at home so it would be something I just do in the locker room too.
If they talked too much junk to me, I would just talk about their mom because I know their mom so I would talk junk about her and make them mad. I’d be in big trouble too though.
Your son Larry Jr was part of the Lakers’ young core with DeAngelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Lonzo Ball and more – how good could that team have been if they stuck together?
Could you imagine if they were still together?!
They all went on to make great careers for themselves and they all just needed to mature.
If the Lakers would have kept them together, I think it’d be very interesting to see how well they would be doing because they had a nice young core together. They would have done really well.
The Lakers have won one championship since breaking that core up. Do you think they could have more if they had stuck with the young core?
I think so because it was a really good group of young confident players.
You look at how those players are playing now and if you put them together and let them play that way, that’s a lot of wins.
Larry Jr moved to the Hawks in the offseason – how did that trade come about? How did he feel about the trade?
I like the trade as he’s moved closer to Ohio which means I can see my grandkids more often so that’s a good thing.
Larry had a great time and great success down at the New Orleans Pelicans and they decided to move on, but the Hawks wanted him and their team right now has a real nice core.
Larry has been welcomed here and I think he’s going to be really successful because they have some nice young pieces that made him excited about the possibility of playing here.
What role do you see Larry Jr having on the team this year? Have you spoken to him about how the Hawks are shaping up?
Larry is the type of player that is going to do a lot of the dirty work. He’s going to play defense, he’s going to block shots, rebound and make passes.
Every team in the league loves to have a guy like that.
Larry has been working on his three-point shooting too so hopefully he’s going to shoot more threes because he’s not done that a real lot in his career so far.
He’s going to have a great year because he’s always going to give 100% and anytime you give that amount of effort combined with the amount of talent he has, you’re going to have success.
I think there’s some excitement in Atlanta. I talk about health all the time and they’ve got a couple of injuries right now, but they just had a game against New Orleans in which they played really hard and won.
This is another group of players who seem like they like each other and they’re nice and young. With youth, there’s some small mistakes that happen but they make up for it because they do like each other, and they play hard for each other. The Hawks are going to be just fine.
Any insight into how Zaccharie Risacher looks? Has he got superstar potential?
He’s young but man does he have potential. He does some nice things and I’ve seen some of his shots where he’s just made nice moves and shot it off the glass. He’s going to be very good.
He’s going to mature and grow into that body, but he’ll be good this year which will help the team quite a bit because he has a lot of talent and they have a nice young core.
There was offseason speculation regarding Trae Young’s future. Could you imagine the Hawks trading him? If they did, what return would they get for a player of his caliber?
From what I’ve seen of Trae Young, he is such a great player.
I’m not a trading guy. I believe that Trae Young is having a great start to the season and he’s running the team really well while also playing really well.
I would not even talk about trading Trae Young because I do not know how you would replace him. Who are you going to replace him with?! He’s one of the best point guards in the whole league right now so I would just let him keep doing what he’s doing with these young guys.
In my opinion, I would definitely not trade him away. There’s no realistic return you could get for Young which would make sense for the Hawks.
I’ve never heard it but some people may talk bad about Young but from what I’ve seen from him lately, he’s a wonderful player.
You were a Slam Dunk Contest champion – what do you think of the state of the dunk contest now and how can it be improved?
In my opinion, there’s too many props right now.
I would also like to see players only get one shot to make the dunk like it was when we did it. This is your profession, this is what you’re good at, that’s why you’re in the Slam Dunk Contest so make the first dunk. That would definitely make it more interesting.
Who is the best Slam Dunk Contest participant ever?
I would like to say myself but I’m not because Vince Carter was the best. Vince was just a man amongst boys. I didn’t get to go against him, but I think all of Vince Carter’s stuff at the contests was the best.
My favorite dunker of all time though was Dr. J (Julius Erving). That’s who I wanted to be and that’s who I ended up beating, which made my life pretty great.
Dr. J is also definitely my favorite in game dunker because he just has some really great dunks.
So, Vince Carter and Dr. J are my two favorite dunkers.
Which players would you like to see take part in the dunk contest this year?
I wish Aaron Gordon would get back into the contest alongside Zach LaVine. Maybe I’ll talk to Larry Jr. and convince him to get back in it.
There’s some nice young highflyers out there but if we can talk Gordon, LaVine and Nance Jr. back into it then it will be very interesting.
Larry Jr. can still jump and dunk as proven by his dunk recently against the Pelicans. Hopefully we can talk him into taking part in the contest again.
What have you made of Jayson Tatum’s start to the season? Is he playing with a point to prove after being benched at the Olympics?
I don’t know why Steve Kerr didn’t play him at the Olympics but regardless of the reason, to me, it did not impact my feelings on Jayson Tatum because he’s such a great player.
He’s had a great start to the season but in my book, he doesn’t have anything to prove because he’s a huge reason why his team won the championship last season.
He just needs to continue doing what he’s doing and try to forget about what happened in the summer. People will always bring it up, but he has to move on and continue how he is because he’s a very successful, great young man who is a great player too.
The Celtics will definitely be hard to beat because they just have so many great pieces with Tatum and Jaylen Brown leading the way. They have a lot of unique pieces too who play well together but someone has to challenge them, and I hope it’s the Cavs.
