Lance Stephenson has played his best basketball in Indiana. Actually, he’s played his only good basketball in Indiana — his average PER as a Pacer is 12.6, but in his two other primary stops, the Hornets and the Clippers, it was 8.8 and 9.8.
Even in Indiana, his play has been erratic at times, which led Pacers GM Kevin Pritchard to say this about Stephenson signing with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers (via the Indy Star):
“We love Lance. We love Lance on the court, we love Lance off the court. Sometimes, he was the best player on our team and sometimes he was the best player on the other team. We love Lance and we wish him the best.”
Stephenson didn’t like that and responded with a since-deleted Instagram post (but nothing goes away on the Internet).
https://imgur.com/a/mGtCP5x
“Best player for the other team really that’s how u feel about me. I put my heart to this game and also a team player. I do whatever it takes to help my team win not one time I felt like I help the opposite team win. I will always love my pacer fans.”
LeBron wanted Stephenson on the Lakers, according to reports. Stephenson plays hard, can create shots, defends, and will bring a certain energy to the Lakers.
The man with the hardest job in Los Angeles right now might be Luke Walton. Last year he did a good job developing the Lakers’ young talent and getting them to defend well, but LeBron is a challenge to coach because he is a savant with the game, Rajon Rondo is a high IQ player known to challenge coaches, and then there’s Stephenson. Meshing all of it and getting everyone to buy into a team concept will be like making an exceptional dish on “Chopped” — not everything in that basket is going to go together.
