Lance Stephenson offered 5 yr / 44 mil from Pacers, but wants more and will talk to other teams.

Not at all. What I'm saying is the Pacers offer seems to be proper market value but I don't trust Stephenson to keep his head screwed on for 5 years. He isn't the kind of player I would trust in the playoffs. Ear-blowing doesn't win games.

Giving him $30 million over 2 years would off-the-charts crazy.

Smart teams will wait for the overpriced, middling guys to get big money and then clean up on the leftovers.

 

I hope Lance goes to Chicago.. since they traded for sf Doug McDermott


rose / Dj augustin
Lance / Jimmy butler
McDermott / Dunleavy
boozer / Taj
noah / Greg smith


I just really want us to get melo and have crazy free flowing offense with melo playing stretch four and switching with parsons

 

Like I said, he's a knucklehead, but I think people pretty seriously underrate him.

He plays in a really broken offensive system in Indiana but still puts up very good numbers. Strong defense as a guard with numbers that are more like a power forward in terms of %. The man shot almost 55% on 2 pointers last year. That's very good.

His true shooting is dragged down by his free throw but his effective field goal % is better than James Harden.

He is a power forward offensively playing the 2 guard.

 

Not saying that I would give him $30mm for two years. Saying it's a safer bet than a five year 8-9mm contract with his known "quirks."

 

His talent level probably deserves more, and I think he might find more on the market.

But there's the 'head case + team chemistry ruiner' discount which offsets it.

I personally wouldn't want him at any cost. Not worth putting sabotaging your own team even if you get a bargain.

 

They low balled him....wow.

 

Some of you guys kidding? He should start at 12 mil.

 

definitely not used to these name changes. My first thought was, how could the New Orleans Hornets afford him??

Charlotte Hornets though, that'd be an interesting match.

Chicago also might be a really good fit for him. Thibs would get the most out of him and Noah wouldn't let him get out of line.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>RT <a href="https://twitter.com/Chris_Broussard">@Chris_Broussard</a>: Sources: Stephenson &amp; Pacers at impasse. Indy offers 5 yrs/$44 mill. Lance wants more; Bulls, Lakers Hornets interested</p>&mdash; Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/statuses/484334350318592001">July 2, 2014</a></blockquote>
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He was a knuckledhead who thought he was "born ready" but ended up going to freaking Cincy to play college ball, before then being taken in the 2nd round.

He could've self-destructed a long time ago. The way he was treated since his youth in NYC, i'm sure he hasn't been worried financially for a long time now.

 

He's a big reason why the Pacers' offensive system is broken. No moving the ball around. He will either get points or get an assist. If he doesn't see an opportunity to score and doesn't see an open man, he will dribble into oblivion. It's not that he's utterly selfish, he's also just dumb. He doesn't think ahead.

But there's selfishness too. He looked fine in the first half of the season. When he didn't get picked for the AS game, he declared he'd destroy those picked ahead of him, and it went downhill from there. No defense, extreme overdribbling and trying to get numbers.

Early in the year I thought he's a legit 12 mil player, maybe more. Towards the end of the season I started looking at him as a midlevel caliber player.

He will obviously get more than that, some team will pay based on numbers and raw talent. And I think the Pacers probably have to be that team, they can't afford to lose any of Paul George, Hibbert or Stephenson for nothing. Even if they are flawed players, the only chance to contend is to either get them "fixed" or trade them for all star caliber players. If they let Stephenson go, it's a major setback asset wise and talent wise.

I don't even feel confident about this 44 mil contract. Lance only had a couple months of very good basketball in his whole career. And he's the type of person I could easily see become less coachable when he gets paid. So it's risky. But what can you do.

 

He can probably get more, but Pacers are being smart here not to start with a high offer. They can always counter later.

The only danger is that Lance gets offended or gets swept off his feet by another team. But what sane team is going to promise Lance the keys to the kingdom before Indy gets a chance to counter? Any team that does that is just going to be feeding Lance's ego even more, practically guaranteeing he will destroy the franchise.

 

The perfect analogy: Lance is the new Stephen Jackson.

You never know if he'll win you a playoff series or if you'll have to waive him.

 

You guys are CRAZY. Stephenson was the ONLY one who consistently competed against Miami. Yea George eventually went off, but for the most part he looked disinterested. Stephenson's the only one who showed some type of fight. You can argue he was the best player in that series for the Pacers. Yet he's a headcase? lmao. HIBBERT'S the one I'd be worried about.

 

This is true and false. He is, but good offensive coaches find ways to get through to these guys and put in a system they can function in. Vogel isn't that kind of coach so you are basically relying on him to figure out it on his own.

Stephen Jackson was never as good as Stephenson and was always overrated.

Jackson was always a volume shooter. Volume shooters will hit big shots because they take so many of them. Jackson's best percentages in his career: .435% from the field and 36% from three. (not the same year.) His actual averages 41% from the field and 33% from 3.

Stephen Jackson was a mediocre shooter who took a lot of shots AND was a knucklehead. Jackson took about 6 more shots per 36 minutes than Lance Stephenson despite being a worse offensive player.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Pacers nearing point at which they will have to dump salary -- buy out Scola, trade someone -- to keep Lance and duck the tax.</p>&mdash; Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZachLowe_NBA/statuses/484349070379872256">July 2, 2014</a></blockquote>
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in b4 nostalgic rockets fanz bring back escooolllaaa plz. He sucks now

 

If I wasn't a Pacers fan, I'd maybe be more optimistic about something like that. But I have too strong memories of how Rick Carlisle tried to coach Ron Artest and Jermaine O'Neal and they just kept being dumb. Rick Carlisle is one of the best offensive coaches you will ever find. But dumb players are dumb, and if they have big egos too, even a special coach will struggle to get to them.

I don't think Vogel is anything special. But I don't trust Lance Stephenson at all. I think it's very risky to sign him regardless of who's the coach. The 5 / 44 mil number scares me. And the idea that it might be even more than that terrifies me. It's like Garnett said to Maggette, "way to get your numbers." I give Lance better than 50/50 odds to follow Maggette's path. Great numbers, a lot of stats bloggers in love, dubious on court impact.

He had a couple really good months where he did defend and did a decent enough job of playing within the team concept. So who knows. He just scares me.

 

To be fair, every bench player who leaves the Pacers becomes 2 times better.

 

Yea, Lance is a little better. Better shooter and slightly better passer, though Jackson was also above average there. Jackson was a chucker, but Lance does benefit from not having to be a primary shot creator. If you ask him to be the lead scorer in half court sets his shooting percentages are going to go down. This may be too old a reference, but look what happened to Pippen when he wanted to lead the offense on the Rockets.

Jackson was similar to Lance in that he was athletic, could create his own shot, and capable of causing mismatches due to his combination of size, speed, and perimeter skills. Like Lance, Jackson was passionate and could rev his team up. But not always in ways that you want.