You remember the mouthy 6’5 former Pacer from Brooklyn who almost made the NBA All-Star game in 2014? You know, the guy who blew into LeBron’s ear in a 2014 Eastern Conference Finals game. That man is named Lance Stephenson for those who haven’t caught on yet and the man is dangerously near irrelevance in the NBA. And he is only 26. The next question that has to be asked is how can such a young player who rose so high in the NBA drop so low in a matter of a couple years? Let’s follow his NBA story.

The Indiana Pacers Years

Lance was drafted by the Indiana Pacers in the 2nd round. Now, he wasn’t drafted in the 2nd round because he was an older player or lacked the athleticism or talent, it was more due to his legal troubles. Stephenson was one of the best high school players to ever come out of Brooklyn yet that didn’t keep him out of trouble. He was suspended for 5 games for an altercation with a teammate and then in that same year he “groped” a girl at school where he faced a Class B misdemeanor sexual assault charge. Those issues didn’t stop him from landing a scholarship with Cincinnati, but even there he couldn’t stay out of trouble where he was arrested for third degree assault charges for throwing his then girlfriend down the stairs. Those charges were dropped, but needless to say the guy came with some heavy baggage when the Pacers drafted him.

Now the Pacers had this troubled yet very talented player on their roster and Lance had a lot to prove. The first couple of years Lance didn’t play much and even lost some playing time due to “immaturity” issues. In fact, what most people knew about Lance during those first couple of years was when he made the choke sign to LeBron during the playoffs after LeBron missed a crucial free throw. The guy hardly played and he was already making national news, you could tell he was destined to be in the limelight.

Lance making the choke sign to LeBron from the bench. This guy was something else.

Then comes the 2012-2013 NBA season and Lance gets his opportunity. The oft injured Danny Granger goes down once again and it forces Lance into the starting lineup. He does an admirable job averaging 8.8 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 2.9 AST, and 1.0 SPG. His energy and defense is instantly noticed and the whole team just has an added edge with him on the court. Then the playoffs roll around. Lance is putting up near triple doubles and even has 25 points and 10 boards to eliminate the New York Knicks and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals to face the Miami Heat. The Pacers do the unexpected and take the Heat to 7 games led by the veteran leader David West, talented young star Paul George, and the least expected but feisty Lance Stephenson. The Pacers were on the map and expected to challenge the Heat next season with Lance being a key piece to that core.

Here comes the 2013-2014 season and expectations are sky high for the Pacers. They have a young player with superstar potential in Paul George, one of the best up and coming centers in Roy Hibbert, possibly the best midrange shooter from the 4 in David West along with his “I didn’t do nothin” scowl, George Hill being solid as ever at the point, and the one and only Lance Stephenson who brought the flash to that Pacers group. It looks funny writing that out right now knowing what we know now about how some of those guys careers turn out but at the time that Pacers lineup was killer. The Pacers came in hot and that included Lance just tearing it up. Lance put up numbers of 14.1 PPG, 7.3 RPG, and 5.1 AST. For a shooting guard those are really incredible numbers, especially the rebounding! He and the Pacers had the nation watching and soon there was a push for Lance to make the All-Star game. He just barely missed out and wasn’t selected as a reserve which was still quite the achievement for him, but it did lead to this hilarious video: Lance’s All-Star Video.

After the All-Star game, things started to fall apart for that Pacers team. First, the Pacers traded Danny Granger for Evan Turner. At the time it looked like a trade with tons of potential because Granger wasn’t ever healthy and although Turner’s stats were buffed by inefficiencies, it seemed that he would be a very valuable player off the bench for a contender. Things just got worse, the Pacers had a dominating lead for the top seed in the East at the All-Star break but just barely scraped by to keep that lead by the end of the season. Even Turner got into a fight in practice, Roy Hibbert was talking about some “selfish dudes” on the team, there was even an Andrew Bynum sighting, things were chaos and those off the court issues were seriously affecting the on court play. In the end, the team dragged to the Eastern Conference Finals (more due to the weakness of the East) and faced the Heat once again. They put up a fight in a few of the games, but the team had just lost the will to come together and do something special. The Heat put them away in 6 and left the Pacers with lots of questions. All in a matter of one year the Pacers went from being the most promising and upcoming team to a team with a questionable future.

The Hornets/Clippers/Grizzly years

Lance Stephenson was a free agent that summer. Lance wanted a BIG contract and Bird wanted none of that. Bird offered him a reasonable but not lucrative deal of 5/years $44 million. Lance held off for a long time and there were very little rumors of who he would sign with. Then the Hornets came into play and the next thing you know Lance is signing a 3/year $27 million offer with the third year being a team option. It was strange that he took that offer but the best explanation was he was betting on himself to earn an even bigger contract and that his relationship with Bird had deteriorated. It was a sad day for many Pacers fans who really enjoyed watching “Born Ready” but some were pleased due to his antics and the way he left the Pacers taking what many considered a worse deal.

Lance went on to have a horrific season at Charlotte. He was simply an offensive liability due to shooting abysmal percentages at 17.1% 3pt and 37.6% FG%. His defense was also questionable due to up and down effort on that end of the ball. At times you would see the old Lance effort but you could tell that the poor play and missed expectations were getting at him. That next summer he was traded to the L.A Clippers.

Lance showed up to the Clippers and never really impressed. His shooting percentages were back to normal but he never really earned many minutes on a team that needed shooting guards. He even started a couple of times but the Lance Stephenson of old was nowhere to be found. At best he was a mid to deep bench player. By the All-Star break he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.

His half season at Memphis was actually somewhat memorable and I don’t mean that in a negative way. Lance joined a team that was in play for the playoffs but had been hit hard with the injury bug and recently made a few trades which included bringing Stephenson, Chris “Birdman” Anderson, PJ Hairston, and Mario Chalmers on board. Mix in Zach Randolph and you got yourself a motley crew there. This was the perfect opportunity for Lance to show off his stuff because he could be a lead guy again. Well, he did that to the tune of 14.2 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 2.8 AST all while shooting 35.5% from 3pt range. If you watched him during that stretch he looked a lot like the former Lance Stephenson and he seemed to be back in his element. The Grizzlies did end up making the playoffs but they were swept in the first round by the San Antonio Spurs.

Where is he now?

He just signed to the New Orleans Pelicans for a contract that only guarantees $100,000 and he has to earn his roster spot. There were lots and lots of rumors floating around the NBA about this team and that team being interest or that he will rejoin the Pacers or go overseas to China, but none of those sources had any validity. We are at the point of free agency where camp fodder is getting contracts. Guys that will never even touch an NBA floor in the regular season are getting training camp contracts while a 26 year old former borderline All-Star is signing along with them……..

What gives?

Well, that is a good question. I believe when you follow the timeline of Lance Stephenson it is a number of things. Firstly, the guy obviously deals with issues of controlling his emotions. At times that has even landed him into legal troubles. I think the combination of leaving a guy like Frank Vogel who is known to be a players coach and was with Lance from the beginning and the fact that right when he left he really really struggled just cracked him. Now, I’m not saying that he can’t get it back together (in fact there is evidence of that being possible like what happened with the Grizzlies). What you are probably thinking now is “okay, so he cracked, why won’t most teams take a chance on him though?” which leads to my next point. The last piece to the puzzle, in my opinion, is that Lance Stephenson needs to have the ball run through him. If you watch him play when he is at his best he is almost like a point guard. He handles the ball, he takes the ball to the rim, he makes flashy passes. Those are good things right? Well, yes, but it makes it more difficult to add him to the end of a bench and expect him to be a deep bench guy who you won’t exactly gameplan around. Especially when you add to the fact that he is just an okay shooter and potentially causes issues in the locker room, he is kind of hard to just put in for spot minutes but forget about if you have to. Basically he is high maintenance.

With all of this being said, I have always been a huge fan of Lance Stephenson. Love him or hate him, the guy embodies the entertainment side of the NBA. He knows how to get a rise out of people and he always keeps all eyes on him. And lastly, he is a competitor. The guy thrives in the biggest of situations and we all know we love to watch those types of players. It’s why we argue over things like “clutch” even though that isn’t a quantifiable or even real thing to argue about. The dude was a blast to root for as a Pacers fan.

Good luck with the Pelicans this year Lance!

Sources: http://www.basketball-reference.com/, http://www.usatoday.com/