Larry Nance Jr. opens up about being traded, Hawks' outlook

When Atlanta Hawks forward Larry Nance Jr.’s career ends, he plans to return to his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. That day has not yet arrived, and Nance is one of the Hawks’ players to draw the most trade interest amid rumors around the roster. 

Nance got to the Hawks as part of the return for trading Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans.

It was the fourth trade of Nance’s career and yet another new experience.

The Los Angeles Lakers drafted Nance in 2015 and traded Nance to the Cleveland Cavaliers – where his father starred in the late 1980s and early 90s – in 2018. The Cavaliers traded Nance to the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021. 

Portland turned around and traded him to the Pelicans in 2022, with New Orleans flipping Nance to the Hawks over the 2024 offseason.

“It's different every time,” Nance told the panel of “The Hoop Collective” podcast on their September 12 live episode. “LA to Cleveland, I found out via [ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski]. But again, that was just a day of – it was a high. It was a was really good day. Leaving Cleveland was tough. But again, that was something that it was the right time for.

“It didn't work out in Portland. And Cleveland, turns out I did them a favor. Lauri [Markkanen] turned out to be a pretty decent player and Don's [Donovan Mitchell] even better. But that one was – I kind of knew that one was coming.”

The conversation was generally light-hearted. But Nance also made some revealing remarks.

Larry Nance Jr. Reflects Fondly on Former Teammates, Has No Ties to Hawks

Nance pointed to his strong relationship with Pelicans guard CJ McCollum – another Ohio native – that his trade from the Blazers was on the horizon.

He also lamented the mess New York Knicks wing Josh Hart’s dogs made in their house swap.

He also spoke highly about former Pelicans teammate Zion Williamson being able to “tie his shoes” and do a windmill dunk in the context of some of his other legendary teammates like the late Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

Nance has played with 130 different teammates in his career, per RealGM. But he revealed he has no ties to his new team.

“Funny enough, of 30 teams, I probably know three to four people, players on each team,” Nance said. “But the Hawks, that was the one team that I know I have no prior previous relationships with anybody. So I’m going down there like, ‘How you doing? [I’m] Larry.’”

Nance is on an expiring contract and, at 31 years old, does not fit the Hawks’ current timeline.

His desire to return home and fit with this iteration of the Hawks could pave the way for an inter-conference trade down the road. For now, Nance is bought in just like Trae Young.

“I was thrilled to get out of the West, because that 1 through 6, 1 through 15 there is brutal. But if you look at the East, we got a number amount of teams that aren't looking to make the playoffs or care more about their draft stock than wins, and we're not one of those teams. So, hopefully, if we do what we're supposed to do, we'll snag an 8-seed, snag a 7-seed, surprise some people.”