Brooklyn Nets: Should Lance Stephenson Interest Them?
By Adam McGee
It’s that time of year again. The Brooklyn Nets might have started it all off when rumors emerged that they were prepared to shop their superstar players, but with players who signed as free agents this summer now eligible to be traded, Lance Stephenson might just kick the NBA’s trade rumor silly season into the next gear.
Stephenson is one of the league’s most mercurial and temperamental talents, and as a result, in spite of his ability, opinions on him vary drastically. Some see him as a genius who hasn’t quite had his chance to shine yet, while others view his sheer presence on a roster as being toxic.
There’s no doubt the truth lies somewhere in the middle, but based on recent evidence there’s much more to support the latter than the former. When the Indiana Pacers team that stormed through the first half of last season ended up stumbling towards the finish line, many felt the blame should have fallen with Stephenson.
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Now, having signed with the Charlotte Hornets, the rest of the league has witnessed a team that made a soaring improvement last year, virtually slam on the brakes as their season has already fallen apart. As the common denominator between the two situations, it seems like Lance’s stay in Charlotte may prove not to be a long one now.
Although they have made a significantly worse start than Brooklyn, the Hornets find themselves in very much the same mode as the Nets. The season hasn’t gone according to plan, and now is the time to ensure that it doesn’t become a long term habit. Does that make Brooklyn and Charlotte the ideal trade partners?
Does two wrongs make a right?
Either way, it seems like there’s a mutual interest, as both sides feel each other out to decide whether there’s a deal to be done. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, there are a variety of options on the table too:
"The Nets have talked with Charlotte on the possibility of a deal for Stephenson, a Brooklyn native, and have been scouring the league for intel on Stephenson, sources told Yahoo. Charlotte has had a willingness to consider taking center Brook Lopez, whom they nearly signed to an offer sheet in 2012, in a trade, league sources said. The two teams have exchanged ideas, but Brooklyn has been mostly spending time trying to investigate the risks and rewards of possible scenarios with Stephenson."
If the Nets are indeed spending time to do their due diligence on the potential impact of Stephenson, that should at least act as reassurance to Brooklyn fans.
It’s hard to tell whether signing Stephenson would have a positive or negative effect on Brooklyn’s fortunes, but one thing is for sure, it would signal a definite change in direction.
The positives of signing Stephenson would be that he is a high caliber talent, who’s still very young, and is tied down to a deal which represents good value in the modern NBA landscape.
The reality is that signing him would have to signal a complete transformation of the team’s roster and philosophy though. The only way the current group’s offense could become more stagnant would be to add another guy who always wants the ball in his hands, and that’s exactly what Stephenson is.
The Nets might well decide that the risk of a younger, cheaper talent is the way that they want to start the retooling of their roster, but one thing’s for sure, I know I’d feel more comfortable with Joe Johnson as my offense’s isolation guy than I would with Lance filling that role.