What Lance Stephenson Can Still Offer His Next NBA Team
The Indiana Pacers let Lance Stephenson go, much to the chagrin of former teammate Paul George. It's understandable, though.
To steal a phrase from Forrest Gump's mom, Stephenson is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get.
"Born Ready" is one of the more sporadic, unusual characters in the game today. That's probably what led Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard to say of him, "Sometimes he's the best player on our team. Sometimes he's the best player on the other team," per Kevin Bowen of 1070 The Fan.
If Forrest's mom is anything like my mom, the box of chocolates quickly filled up with thumb-squished sweets revealing the inside of each morsel. (Like, seriously, do moms not read the back of the top of the box?)
But this comparison works out well for our purpose here. You can pinch open aspects of Stephenson's game to find the best of it, which reveals why some teams—perhaps even your favorite team—could use Stephenson's presence.
A Value Contract
Stephenson made about $4.2 million last year, hardly a king's ransom in today's NBA. In exchange for that, he gave the Pacers 9.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists and played all 82 games.
He finished 97th in Real Plus-Minus wins, according to ESPN.com in spite of being the 219th "highest-paid" player.
No one is going to argue that he is an All-Star, worth a massive contract or even worth the mid-level exception. He is, however, a value contract.
This is not the summer of 2016. Teams aren't rolling in all their extra money to spend. In fact, several are pressed against the cap or even the luxury tax and could use someone who can contribute something without a big contract.
Teams such as the Portland Trail Blazers, Washington Wizards or even George's Oklahoma City Thunder should consider him for that reason alone.
The nice thing about having a player like Stephenson is that if he's playing well, you play him; if he's not, you don't. According to Basketball Reference, Stephenson had a Game Score of 21.6 and played 31 minutes in his best game of the season. In his worst, he had a Game Score of minus-6.2 and played 13 minutes.
If he's got it going, a team can play him and get "cheap" production. If not, it can bench him and not worry about it.
Streaky Scoring...But Scoring Nonetheless
Stephenson is not a consistent scorer. But he can get it going.
Let's be clear, he's not a good shooter, but he can score. He only shot 28.9 percent from deep last year, but he did shoot 49.5 percent from two. According to NBA.com, 34 percent of his buckets came within 10 feet of the rim, and he was 62.2 percent from that range.
Also, 199 of his baskets were unassisted compared with 104 that were assisted, meaning he's plenty capable of creating points for himself. Granted, there are times when he takes shots he "created" that are ill-advised, but he can create them.
He does have a somewhat surprising self-awareness of this, though. Based on his game log, he took more shots than he scored points 35 times last year but took 10-plus shots on only 11 of those occasions. In five of those instances, his attempts only exceeded his point total by one.
He averaged just 6.3 attempts in the other 24 games.
What that means is that while there were a few exceptions to the rule, Stephenson showed he knew when he "had it" and when he didn't. That's not a level of humility every player has, and it's not something you'd typically associate with Stephenson.
Gregg Popovich is a coach who has successfully worked with enigmatic personalities such as Dennis Rodman and Stephen Jackson, and the San Antonio Spurs are in need of more shot creators. Perhaps Stephenson would be a fit there.
Passing
Stephenson is a very good passer, something that might escape a lot of people. His 19.9 career assist percentage is actually higher than more notable ball-sharers Giannis Antetokounmpo and Andre Iguodala. He ranks 47th among 170 active players with a minimum of 10,000 minutes.
There are eight games in which he's had 10 or more dimes, and his team has won seven of them.
This notion that he is not a willing passer aligns with how he is perceived as a scorer and what might be a misconception of him as a "ball hog." He's a much more unselfish distributor and more apt to pass the ball out of double-teams than other, more "star-caliber" players, like Carmelo Anthony, for instance.
Having a secondary or tertiary shot creator at the wing is something a lot of teams could use, specifically those that struggle when their starting point guard sits. The Charlotte Hornets are such a team, but that bridge has been burned.
The Memphis Grizzlies might want to consider him, though. Tyreke Evans may leave as a free agent, and the Grizzlies scored only 98.5 points per 100 possessions with both Evans and Mike Conley on the bench last season.
Rebounding
Another overlooked aspect of Stephenson's game is his rebounding. You're not going to get double-digit boards from him per game, but he is good for his size.
The only two players 6'6" or under who finished with more than his 8.3 snares per 36 minutes were Russell Westbrook (9.9) and Dejounte Murray (9.5).
As the NBA evolves to small ball, rebounding becomes more and more of a collaborative effort with "bigs" sitting on the bench at the end of a lot of games. For such a team, Born Ready could be a huge asset.
One team that springs to mind in this regard is the Golden State Warriors. They managed to revamp other players with "personalities" such as JaVale McGee and Nick Young. Why not Lance Stephenson? He certainly would fit in well when Iguodala isn't able to go.
At 25th in defensive rebound percentage, it's not like they couldn't use the help, either.
A Very Annoying Dude (In a Very Good Way)
I'm a stats guy, but one thing that's impossible to measure is the ability to be a pest, an outright annoyance to every player on the other team.
My first-ever interview with an NBA player was Dwyane Wade, and I asked him what makes a great defender. I can't remember word for word what he said, but the upshot was a guy who can get in your head and take you off your game.
Bring up Stephenson's name, and an image of him blowing in LeBron James' ear is what comes to most people's minds.
That's next-level annoying right there.
To be fair, James is 29-17 against Stephenson in his career, including the playoffs. Also to be fair, James is a lot better against most opponents.
To compete for a championship, teams need players with an edge and a certain degree of badgering to them. You could argue that's what the Houston Rockets lacked this year. They need that guy who can be nasty and irritating and even sophomoric.
Stephenson is that guy, and his attributes as a player could mesh well apart from his lack of a three-point shot.
