It’s time to come to grips with Lance Stephenson being a member of the Los Angeles Clippers to start the 2015-16 season in the Clippers brand new jerseys. He’ll be one his third different team in as many seasons and this time, more than ever, the team he’s on is taking a chance on him. If he doesn’t perform up to standard, it might mean bad things for his career.
Now we have to wait a whole summer to see Lance in some regular season action but he could’ve actually been a member of the Clippers a long time ago. Whether that would’ve helped the team in the long run, through the playoff stretch is unknown. But we do know Doc had his eye on Lance for a while.
Following from Arash Markazi of ESPN.com.
Does Doc Rivers the Clippers’ president of basketball operations believe that Doc Rivers the Clippers’ coach can handle Lance Stephenson?
That is presumably one of the many questions Rivers was forced to ask himself as he sat in his office on Monday mulling a trade that was on his table and essentially up to him to accept or veto. The Charlotte Hornets had already agreed to ship Stephenson to Los Angeles in exchange for Spencer Hawes and Matt Barnes. It was up to Rivers, both the president and coach, to decide if it was worth it.
Charlotte tried to pull off a similar trade with the Clippers last season, sources say, before Rivers backed out.
It was reported that the Hornets couldn’t get rid of Lance because no one wanted him, so the validity of that report may or may not be true now. It was heavily rumored that he was going to be traded to his hometown Brooklyn Nets but that deal also fell through for one reason or another and he just ended the season not exactly fitting in with the Hornets and their roster.
Lance’s value is up in the air. He can either be the player he was with the Indiana Pacers, producing at an All-Star level and able to get a triple-double when needed or he can be the player he was with the Charlotte Hornets last season, shooting 17% from three-point range, the worst percentage in NBA history.
Doc must still believe in Lance to do this deal for a player as questionable as Stephenson, shortening his rotation in the process and trading away a fan favorite in Matt Barnes to bring in Stephenson. Doc Rivers said Lance’s role will be primarily coming off the bench, so it could spell the end for another fan favorite, Jamal Crawford.
