Los Angeles Lakers: 3 reasons Lance Stephenson is a bad move

3. Stephenson’s history outside of Indiana is spotty

Stephenson has played for six teams in eight NBA seasons, and the Lakers will be his seventh. However, there’s a good reason why he is mostly associated with the Pacers: His only memorable success in the league has happened during his two separate stints in Indiana.

During his first four years with the Pacers, Stephenson grew from a little-used backup to a full-time starter. He averaged 13.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game on the 2013-14 team that pushed LeBron and the Miami Heat to six games in the Eastern Conference Finals.

That was the series in which when Stephenson made himself a social media legend by blowing in LeBron’s ear during a game.

Stephenson parlayed his improvement and notoriety into a lucrative free agency deal with the Charlotte Hornets in the summer of 2014. But he struggled so much that Charlotte traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers after one season. Stephenson was supposed to be part of L.A.’s quasi-“super-team” but he failed to play up to expectations and was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies after just 43 games.

To his credit, Stephenson averaged a career-high 14.2 points during his partial-season run for a Grizzlies team that was starved for shot-creators. He helped Memphis make it to the playoffs, but the team was swept in the first round.

The Grizzlies didn’t re-sign Stephenson, and he moved on to the New Orleans Pelicans. He was waived before the 2016-17 season was a month old. He later signed a couple of 10-day contracts with the Minnesota Timberwolves before returning to the Pacers.

Last season — Stephenson’s first whole season with one team since his 2014-15 stint in Charlotte — he made moves toward rebuilding his reputation as a solid NBA role player. Stephenson averaged 9.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game for a Pacers team that earned the 5-seed in the East and took the eventual conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games in the first round before being eliminated.

For whatever reason, Stephenson has struggled more often than not when he’s outside of what appears to be his professional comfort zone of Indiana. It seems like a gamble for any other team that takes a chance on him, which is what the Lakers are doing.