Pelicans’ Larry Nance Jr., CJ McCollum bond on NBA journey

CLEVELAND — When Larry Nance Jr. and CJ McCollum join forces in shooting competitions against some of their New Orleans Pelicans teammates, the duo is not shy about flaunting its Northeast Ohio roots.

“We’ll go 330 versus everybody else,” Nance told the Beacon Journal.

Yes, Nance and McCollum hail from the same area code, and they’re major reasons the Pelicans are on pace for one of their best seasons in franchise history.

With a113-103 loss to the Cavaliers on Monday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, the Pelicans dropped to 26-18, third in the NBA’s Western Conference.

“Both CJ and Larry have brought leadership, No. 1,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “They’re high-character guys that are pros. They come in every day, and there’s a standard that they set for themselves, for their teammates.

“CJ has a lot of scoring ability — his ability to be sort of diverse in roles that he can play. He can play off the ball. He can play with the ball his hand. He’ll have nights when he scores big. He’s also OK deferring to others when he needs to. Then Larry, he makes sure the team’s better, just [with] his ability to guard [and] high IQ on the basketball floor. So both of those guys have brought a ton of value to our program.”

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How Larry Nance Jr. and CJ McCollum have bonded as teammates on multiple NBA rosters

It’s been nearly a year since the Portland Trail Blazers sent Nance and McCollum to the Pelicans in a trade on Feb. 8, 2022.

Despite Nance, 30, graduating from Revere High School and McCollum, 31, graduating from GlenOak High School, they didn’t know each other until the Trail Blazers acquired Nance from the Cavaliers (28-17) in a trade on Aug. 27, 2021. They have become good friends since then.