Charlotte Hornets: Will Lance Stephenson Benefit From Al Jefferson’s Absence?
Oh boy. They say when it rains, it pours. Well right now its a torrential downpour in Charlotte.
It seems as if anyone that’s worn teal and purple within the last few months has gotten hurt, and now you can add Al Jefferson‘s name to that list. Per the Charlotte Observer, Jefferson is expected to miss at least the next four weeks with a groin strain.
So if you’re the Charlotte Hornets, here’s how the last few weeks have gone for you: you have a terrible start to the season (that included a 10-game losing streak within the first month), the guy who’s supposed to be your new star (Lance Stephenson) hasn’t fit in well with the team and has been hurt, and now your current star (Al Jefferson) is down for at least the next month.
But hey, at least they’re not the Bobcats anymore, right?
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The latter half of 2014 has not been kind to the Charlotte Hornets, but we’re glass-half-full people, so 2015 will be an improvement. I hope.
There could actually be some sort of good that comes from this, however. One guy in particular may benefit from life without Big Al: Mr. Lance Stephenson. Whether or not it’ll be enough remains to be seen, but let’s take a look at what could be.
Anyone that’s even heard of basketball could see that Lance and Big Al do not mesh well on the court. In fact, one could make the case that they don’t even mesh well off of the court. While I don’t think that Jefferson’s presence is the cause of Stephenson’s woes, I do think his absence could alleviate some of those.
For starters, Lance is not an outside scorer. Neither is Al Jefferson. The difference is that Jefferson is an elite inside scorer. That means he garners a lot of attention down low, which clogs things up for players like Lance Stephenson.
With Jefferson on the bench, opposing teams won’t be stuffing an extra guy by the basket, freeing up space for Stephenson to beat his man one-on-one and drive to the hole.
Another way Lance might benefit is through ball movement. If you’ve watched a Hornets game, particularly in the fourth quarter, you’ve probably noticed that Charlotte has one play they like to run…a lot. Move the ball around the perimeter and feed it to Big Al on the left block. From there, Jefferson goes one-on-one in the post, and usually gets double-teamed.
While that has worked in the past and can continue to work, it’s not the style of basketball that best suits Lance Stephenson’s abilities. He is the type of player that works best when the ball is either moving around him to create space, or when he can drive the lane and either finish or dish out a pretty pass.
When the ball is in Jefferson’s hands, it slows down because that’s his game.
This is precisely why we’ve seen Stephenson play better with a guy like Bismack Biyombo, who doesn’t control the ball and moves well without it, particularly in the pick-and-roll game. Biyombo is going to be the guy filling in for Jefferson, so he and Stephenson will need to continue playing well together for the Hornets to have any chance.
In all honesty, we should have seen this coming based off of last season when Lance Stephenson was an Indiana Pacer. He played much better with the likes of Ian Mahinmi (who is more comparable to Biyombo offensively) than he did with Roy Hibbert (more comparable to Jefferson offensively).They say history repeats itself, so we’ll find out soon enough.
Maybe I’m just a delusional fan scrapping for anything positive during these tough times, but I really think this stretch without Al Jefferson could go a long way for the development of Lance Stephenson as a Hornet.
That may not translate into wins, but it could increase his trade value before the deadline if the Hornets’ front office is really going to unload him.
Silver linings, folks. That’s about all we’re left with at this point.