Indiana Pacers: What to make of Lance Stephenson’s play so far

Lance Stephenson has not played as well as anyone hoped he would at this point of the season. How can he get back on track for the Indiana Pacers?

Lance Stephenson is a fan favorite for the Indiana Pacers. He has his own fan section in Bankers Life Fieldhouse and was a part of the Pacers team that was one game away from the NBA Finals in 2013. He is beloved in Indianapolis and as a result, fans had high hopes for Lance coming into the season. So far, he has been disappointing.

As of Nov. 5, nobody in the league with over 100 minutes played has a worse True Shooting percentage than Stephenson at 31.9 percent. He has the second-worst Player Efficiency Rating with the same minutes played criteria, ahead of only J.R. Smith. Finally, still with the same criteria, he is second to last in Box Plus Minus with triple-digit minutes, only ahead of Bismack Boyimbo.

It would appear his impact has not been great for the Indiana Pacers. On the team, he has the worst offensive rating with an exceedingly poor 76. On the other end, his defensive rating of 108 ranks eighth on the team.

As for his shot creation, that may be the only place he has not been a letdown on offense. He is fourth on the team in assist percentage (first on the second unit) and tied for third in assists per 100 possessions.

He uses his athleticism and craftiness with the ball to get other guys open. Here, he uses a slick spin move to glide by Evan Turner and force the help, which creates an easy jumper for big Al Jefferson:

He has terrific cognition pertaining to the timing of the pocket pass on pick-and-roll/pop action. He reads the defense and quickly can make the right decision to get his teammates good looks from all over the court:

But his offense isn’t always rosy. He has cognizance in creating chances for others, but when creating opportunities for himself, he frequently makes poor decisions. When he puts his head down and tries to get to the rim, there is no question he is going to try to put a shot up, no matter how tough it may be.

This has paved the way for him shooting 44.4 percent at the rim this season, the second-worst mark of his career. Outside of his rookie season, he has never been below 57.5 percent from this distance, so this drop-off is both concerning and a testament to his poor-decision making during the current campaign.

Take this clip for example. On your first viewing experience, watch him take it at Josh Huestis and take a tough contested layup:

Okay, fine, that’s a tough look so it’s not a big deal that he missed it. The concerning part is that he took it. Watch the clip again, and this time, look how open 40 percent 3-point shooter Bojan Bogdanovic is on the weak-side wing.

That is a pass Stephenson has to make. Those kinds of decisions could make him a wildly more effective player with the ball.

Off the ball, Lance has a tendency to become disengaged. That isn’t anything new, but it often puts him in a bad position and jeopardizes the whole offense. Watch him here in the top left corner of the video as he stands 35 feet from the basket the entire possession. This allows his man to simply not guard him and zoom in for a rebound on the T.J. Leaf miss:

This is a common trend of Stephenson’s. Often when the ball goes through his teammates, he becomes disengaged. Defenders know this and leave him, and it makes things harder on everyone else.

Defensively, his on-ball defense has once again been his biggest strength for the Indiana Pacers. Opponents are shooting just 41.3 percent when guarded by Stephenson, good for third on the team and only 0.1 percent worse than first.

He does a great job here fighting through the screen to stay on Caris LeVert. Then he stays in front of him and forces him into the big man, and LeVert joins Turner’s block after being stuffed by Turner, which was largely thanks to Lance:

Off the ball, Lance is hot and cold. When he’s hot, he is in the right position and making plays like Turner does in the clip above. Here, he blocks an unsuspecting Allen Crabbe:

Similar to the offense, he can become disengaged fairly easily when he is uninvolved. Here, he loses his man, Alex Abrines, on a skirmish for a rebound. He stands under the basket, guarding nobody for the remainder of the play, and Abrines gets a wide open look from deep:

Those are the kind of plays Lance can’t have. If he is in the game to create and defend, he has to be doing both of those things to the best of his abilities.

Giving credit where it is due, Lance only has a 9.2 turnover percentage so far this season, over six percent better than any other season of his career. He is taking care of the ball better, but his shots just aren’t falling.

As of Nov. 6, he’s shooting 16 percent from long range.  He’s a career 30 percent shooter from deep, so expect improvement to happen there. Shots like this will go down for Lance eventually:

He’s been all over the map, but when Lance is engaged, he has been the fun and effective player that Indiana Pacers fans know and love. The challenge for Nate McMillan and co. is to create an environment that ensures constant engagement from the reserve wing.

If they can do that, Lance can be an effective player in his 19 minutes per game. If not, he may see a significant dip in his playing time when Glenn Robinson III returns from injury.

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Taking Lance for what he can do is important. If his shot starts falling, maybe he will become engaged on his own. Let’s hope that happens sooner rather than later so Lance can be more effective in all facets of the game for the Indiana Pacers.