What Should the Charlotte Hornets Do With Lance Stephenson?
For the past few months, trade rumors involving Charlotte Hornets‘ swingman, Lance Stephenson, have been swirling. If you’ve been trying to keep up with them all, you’re likely as exhausted as you are confused.
The Hornets have been shopping Stephenson since early on in the season, doing everything short of just tossing their hands up and giving him away.
Recently, there were reports of a near-blockbuster trade involving the Hornets, Nets, and Thunder that would have sent Lance Stephenson back to his hometown of Brooklyn. The deal was all but done (or so we thought) until Brooklyn pulled the plug in the middle of the night.
Opinions in the Queen City regarding the potential trade were mixed, but mostly negative. According to rumors, the Hornets would have gotten Jarrett Jack and Jeremy Lamb in the deal. A few other names were floating around as well in order to make the trade work financially.
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The issue with the deal is that the Hornets would have been shipping off last season’s leader in triple-doubles for two guys that don’t improve the team – neither now nor in the future.
If Charlotte is going to make a trade, it needs to be for a player or set of players that accomplishes at least one of two things – perimeter shooting or frontcourt depth. While Jarrett Jack and Jeremy Lamb are both serviceable players, neither of them would have filled those needs.
The Hornets should consider themselves lucky that Brooklyn bowed out.
This one issue, however, with the trade not going through is that Brooklyn was believed to be one of, if not the, only teams interested in Lance Stephenson. Whoever is waiting around the Hornets’ front office for trade calls may want to grab a seat — that phone is going to be pretty quiet.
If any deal does get done, it will likely be right before the trade deadline to a team either looking to unload or make a playoff run.
While we wait for that, the best thing we can do is speculate on what the Hornets should do.
After seeing what the Hornets were going to receive for Stephenson (and, sadly, were willing to accept) it’s clear that his trade value has hit rock bottom. At this point, Charlotte is (by far) much better off hanging on to him for the remainder of the season.
That is, of course, unless a team comes in offering a package that addresses at least one of the Hornets’ two aforementioned needs. You can hold your breath on that one, I won’t be joining you.
In his limited minutes since returning from a groin injury, Lance Stephenson has actually looked like he’s making an effort to fit in with his teammates both on the court and on the bench.
Maybe I’m delirious, but I’ve noticed that Stephenson can be found laughing and interacting with his teammates more than he was before his injury. However, that could just be a product of the recent victories, as a winning streak is sure to put a smile on anyone’s face.
Playing with the second unit will be good for Lance, as it will allow him to take over more ball-handling responsibilities than when Kemba Walker is on the court. He has seemed to relish that opportunity so far and looks more interested in getting his teammates involved – evident by his nine assists with only eight points in a blowout win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Stephenson came off of the bench again against the Cavs (cited by Steve Clifford as being for chemistry reasons), so it will be interesting to see how Clifford handles the rotations in the upcoming games.
As of right now, I’m sticking with my decision that I’d like to see Lance Stephenson on the Hornets in those upcoming games. That being said, if the Nets can change their mind in the middle of the night, I can too.