Lakers’ Nance still considers himself ahead of schedule to return

The Los Angeles Lakers have turned things around recently, and Larry Nance Jr. wants to get in on the fun. When he originally bruised his knee, the timetable set was four weeks, which he seems to have taken as a personal challenge. He said at that time he would be back before the four weeks were up, and hasn’t eased on the sentiment since.

While all this is exciting, the number one priority should be to absolutely ensure that when he returns, there’s no residual damage to worry about. Yes, the Lakers are technically in the western conference playoff picture, but that’s mostly because everyone is still technically in the western conference playoff picture. It’s great that Nance wants to get back to help his team secure such a playoff spot, but he and the team organization need to do so intelligently. And, in complete fairness, that seems to be the case.

To that point, when the Orange County Register’s Mark Medina asked about how he feels about the process, Nance said, “I have no issues. I’m as content as can be with the way everything is going and how fast it is progressing.”

This is obviously a great place to start, and to be clear, Medina does point out later in the article that Nance still won’t give a concrete return date, which is the smart move so as to avoid giving fans unrealistic expectations.

The Lakers obviously need Nance back, but as with everything that’s gone on in the ‘16-’17 campaign, it’s about pairing long-term management with short-term success.