With the spirit of this exercise being to determine playoff impact, it makes sense that Pete Nance has fallen this low in the rankings. After all, two-way players are flat-out ineligible for postseason participation\u2014 he\u2019d need to earn a contract conversion to play in the games that matter the most. However, with the regular season in mind, Nance is in a better position than most of his end-of-bench companions, including Chris Livingston and Tyler Smith, to make some sort of real contribution. As a 25-year-old with two NBA seasons under his belt, he\u2019s a veteran by two-way contract standards, and he has the polish to match his experience. Nance came into Summer League this past July as the steadiest hand on the court, looking like a man amongst boys next to his younger teammates. That, and the flashes he showed at the end of the 2024\u201325 season, warrant intrigue for how the big man can fit into this Milwaukee Bucks team in the upcoming year.<\/p>\n
For Nance, success starts with his three-point shot. He\u2019s hit 40.0% of his triples in the NBA so far (albeit on low volume), and he notched a 38.1% success rate in the G League last season. That type of reliability from beyond the arc gives Nance a defined role as a stretch four\/five, and clarity when it comes to on-court capabilities goes a long way for fringe players getting a crack at rotation minutes, especially on competitive teams. Other players buried on Milwaukee\u2019s depth chart also have solidified NBA skills (Andre Jackson Jr.\u2019s defense and Mark Sears\u2019 ball handling, for example), but where Nance separates himself is with the ancillary stuff. The Akron, Ohio native does a little bit of everything well enough to prevent him from being a liability in any area. He rebounds, defends the paint, makes good decisions with the ball, and screens willingly.<\/p>\n
Now, there is definitely a ceiling for the type of playing time Nance is viable for, as he\u2019s a tweener big who couldn\u2019t be the primary rim-protecting five for long stretches off the bench. However, for 10\u201315 minutes a night on a random Tuesday in January, he\u2019s a guy Doc Rivers should feel pretty confident about. A consistent rotation role won\u2019t be in the cards for Nance (unless he\u2019s the next AJ Green or Ryan Rollins), as he\u2019ll be stuck behind Giannis, Myles Turner, Bobby Portis, and Jericho Sims in the front court. But if injuries arise, Nance should be effective insurance. Overall, signing him was a smart move from Jon Horst and company, as he\u2019s exactly what a team trying to win should be looking for on a two-way deal.<\/p>\n
What do you think? Does Nance have any chance at earning a contract conversion this season? Drop your thoughts in the comments below, and don\u2019t forget to vote on the next spot in the rankings! Polls close at 10 a.m. (Central) tomorrow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the spirit of this exercise being to determine playoff impact, it makes sense that Pete Nance has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[38851,355,99],"class_list":["post-134882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-bucks-analysis","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}