Lance Stephenson Might Be a Beast

Presumably, many of you Pacers fans recently finished watching Indiana complete its third Summer League game earlier tonight to improve to 2-1. And in the process, you probably saw Pacers’ #40 pick Lance Stephenson, who left the University of Cincinnati after just one season, have his third straight very good game.

I did not do this.

Frankly, I’ve just never been all that into Summer League since (a) it’s just glorified scrimmaging between mostly non-NBA-ready players, and (b) I just finished not sleeping or going out to have fun very often in the evening from November to mid-June while watching the actual NBA season and sort of want to enjoy this beautiful New York Summer. This year, however, I actually did want to check out some games just to get a feel for the rooks since I have never seen Paul George play and was kinda geeked on Lance since he became a high school basketball legend in the city in which I live. Unfortunately, I’ve just had things come up every day during the games so I haven’t caught anything but the highlights really.

Luckily, Sebastian Pruiti of NBA Playbook and imawhat of Pacers Digest have found the time to tune in. And both of those fine fellas have given us better scouting reports/breakdowns of Lance’s Summer League break-out than I ever could have anyway.

In case you’ve been paying even less attention than me, here’s what Lance has been up to as he tries to transition into an NBA point guard (he played the two in college):

Game 1
30 mins, 21 pts (8/10 FGs, 5/8 FTs), 3 asts, 4 rebs, 2 TOs,

Game 2
25 mins, 15 pts (7/10 FGs, 1/1 FTs), 3 asts, 3 rebs, 3 TOs

Game 3
29 mins, 19 pts (6/8 FGs, 1/1 3PTs, 7/10 FTs), 0 asts, 2 rebs, 1 TO, 1 blk, 1 stl

Honestly, stats from Summer League are beyond pointless, so let’s not dwell on the numbers. The only real takeaway from these figures is that he can score (we knew that already) and that he might be able to score efficiently (75.0 FG% is fantastic for a guard — even in a three-game sample size).

But what we might be able to start crossing our fingers about are the qualitative assessments I’m reading. Specifically, it sounds like he is showing some real point guard instincts. Pruiti even dropped a “Tyreke Evans Lite” descriptor on the kid.

"Now, I am not going to say that Lance Stephenson is going to have the same impact as Tyreke Evans did last year (Evans had a year of experience running the point before coming to the pros), but you can see a little Tyreke Evans in his game.  He has a similar combination of size and speed, and it gives him an advantage when being defended by smaller point guards."

To illustrate how Lance has been able to take advantage of his size/strength, Pruiti added this clip:

imawhat picked up on the same thing, adding this about the play:

"Lance shows his strong hands as he recovers a near steal, drives to the hoop, and pulls out the Rajon Rondo around the back fake for an open layup. This move freezes the defender and enables him to convert easily."

My only additional insight comes in the form of “YOU GOT RONDO’D, SON.”

More importantly, Priuti also complimented Lance on his “point guard feel” — something you wouldn’t expect to see out of a player so young and so unaccustomed to running a team, even if it is only Summer League.

"To be a point guard, you need to have a good feel for it.  What I mean by feel, is that a point guard needs to know when and where to get the ball to his teammates so that they have the best chance to score.  Over the past two games, Stevenson has shown that feel."

Again, imawhat saw the same thing:

"One of my main concerns coming in was that Lance would be an overdribbler, a la TJ Ford/Travis Best. In this game Lance does a great job of initiating the offense and getting rid of the ball when necessary. It’s very impressive for a guy running his first game at point. Also, the ability to make crisp one-handed passes is important as it allows a player to execute a pass more quickly, increasing the number of playmaking opportunities. Even more impressive is Lance’s ability to deliver these passes exactly where they need to be, which is in the receiver’s pocket. You’ll see it throughout these clips and I’ll continuously point it out. It’s a very underrated skill, and it’s very important for spot up shooters like Brandon Rush and Paul George."

Good, good stuff.

I could continue to excerpt and post videos from each of their pieces here, but what you should really do is just head over and read both Sebastian Pruiti’s piece and then check out imawhat’s breakdown. Both are smart dudes.

And hopefully Lance can keep this up — and then translate it into the Regular Season. The Pacers haven’t had a lot of luck over the pas … oh … half-decade. So finding a Second Round diamond in the rough who can come in and contribute for the team this year would be a great, great thing.

In Lance, it’s starting to look like they might have just discovered one.

In Lance we trust hope.