Lance Stephenson: It’s Bench Or ‘Bye Bye’
By Jon Shames
The Charlotte Hornets have been surging with Lance Stephenson out, and it looks like the best course of action moving forward is to make him a reserve.
Aside from (maybe) a Walmart on Christmas Eve, there’s nothing harder to manage than an athlete’s ego.
Consider what makes good coaches great: being able to draw up plays, run patented schemes, and develop young guys are all important, but success hinges on players buying into all that, and in order for players to buy in, they have to submit to the coach’s authority and genuinely respect him.
So, as you can see, success doesn’t come easy; it’s a bit more complicated than it looks.
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And sometimes, as a coach, tough decisions are required. If you’re Stan Van Gundy, sometimes you have to tell Greg Monroe to come off of the bench. If you’re Kevin McHale, sometimes you have to tell Omer Asik he’ll be a backup once more.
And if you’re Jeff Hornacek, sometimes you’re going to have tell Isaiah Thomas the same.
So when is Steve Clifford going to have that discussion with Lance Stephenson?
The Charlotte Hornets opened the season quite poorly, sporting a 6-19 record through the first 25. Nobody, sans Al Jefferson, was playing well. And the two biggest disappointments were the two guys who had just received fat new contracts — Kemba Walker, and Lance Stephenson.
Stephenson was brought in over the summer, with Hornets’ management under the impression that he would assume the primary playmaking duties in the backcourt alongside Walker, who has always been more of a scorer than a facilitator.
It was believed that Stephenson, coming from an Indiana team that relied so heavily on perimeter passing and increased ball movement to score, would be a perfect fit for Clifford’s Charlotte squad that was moving in the same direction.
Unfortunately, that was far from the case.
Stephenson and Walker clashed, both visibly attempting to defer to the other, and as a result, taking too many spot-up jumpers.
Stephenson, interestingly enough, developed a reputation as somewhat of a ball-stopper; although he would often pass it off, he only did so after a series of dribble moves (that got him nowhere, mind you), which ate up valuable time on the shot clock for one of the slowest-paced teams in the league.
Both were having awful seasons by their standards, and the Hornets — as a unit — were right there with them. Then, Stephenson went down with a groin injury.
This, as strange as it may seem, was the best thing to happen to the Hornets all season.
In classic Ewing-Theory fashion, the Hornets were able to rattle off four straight wins, three of them by 18 points or more. This, in essence, is the reason that Stephenson should be placed in a role with the second unit upon his return.
So Stephenson isn’t a good fit with the Hornets’ starters; fine — that isn’t to say that he isn’t a good (perfect, really) fit with the reserves.
Let’s not deny the facts here: Stephenson is a crowd pleaser. That’s his personality. He is going to go for the flashy assist nine times out of ten. He’s going to try to make his defender look bad.
But in the end, Lance Stephenson just wants to win.
He is the modern NBA’s standard for a “hero-ball” player. He lives for the crowd, yes, and that can absolutely cost his team in some situations, but since he feeds off the energy of the crowd, it can save his team at some points too.
If there’s one trend that I’ve picked up on this year from watching Stephenson so much, it’s been that he works better in non-isolation situations.
Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t feel entirely comfortable with his role in Charlotte, or perhaps it’s because of the lack of floor spacing, but he looks indecisive when he’s holding the ball, and he waits too long to make up his mind.
He’s a player that relies primarily on his craftiness, so allowing the defense to prepare and read him is far from optimal.
But with that said, he is still better with the ball in his hands. He has a high basketball-IQ and understands how to hit cutters, shooters, and rolling bigs. The issue is, Charlotte’s first-unit offense doesn’t feature a whole lot of any of those things.
There’s the initial cut when the ball is dumped in to Al Jefferson or on a high-post handoff to Cody Zeller, but the weak-side guy rarely goes backdoor.
Unfortunately, it’s been this “cut once, clear out” policy that’s been stifling Stephenson’s play. He’s not of much use standing on the perimeter watching Kemba Walker or Al Jefferson take a defender one-on-one, especially considering the regression of his three-point shot.
He needs to be finding shooters curling off elbow screens and popping out to the opposite wing, ready to slash using a nifty first-step should the ball get back to him. The Hornets starting unit just doesn’t feature anything like that.
Luckily, though, the second unit does. Really, Charlotte’s bench (with Stephenson subbed in for Gerald Henderson) would be a heck of a group.
For a playmaker like Stephenson, having three — potentially four shooters (Gary Neal, Brian Roberts, P.J. Hairston, Marvin Williams) plus a super-athletic big man (Bismack Biyombo) to run pick and roll with is the ideal situation.
Charlotte’s bench, currently in the top half of the league in points per game, could absolutely use a shot-creator like Stephenson as well. Gary Neal is really the only Hornets reserve capable of creating his own shot, and he isn’t much of an assist man. Lance would step in as a primary ball handler, scorer, and creator.
With fewer iso-players in the second unit, there is visibly more off-ball movement, dribble handoffs, and perimeter shifts. This is the exact type of situation that Stephenson thrives it; it seems like a match made in heaven.
Clifford should look to place Lance with the backups upon his return. With the starters playing so well (notably Kemba Walker, who has been balling out of his mind as of late), it doesn’t make sense to jeopardize the Hornets’ recent success.
There have been those calling to trade Stephenson, but at this point, with his value so low and a contract that’s only paying him $9 million this year, giving him a shot at redeeming his season (and maybe even a Sixth Man of the Year award) would be in the best interest of both parties.
All he’s got to do is accept the role bestowed upon him.
Let’s hope Steve Clifford is ready for the talk.
In the words of the great Kobe Bryant: Steve Clifford, “put your big-boy pants on.”