It was reported by the Indianapolis Star that Lance Stephenson is officially the starting point guard for the Indiana Pacers. It didn’t seem like a surprise, since the point guard performed extremely well in this year’s Summer League. He pulled off an assist here, dropped buckets there. He was amazing.

Stephenson shows hope at the point guard position. It seemed, after a solid year, A.J. Price would be named starter. The Pacers want to keep T.J. Ford on the bench, which I don’t understand why. But that discussion will come for a later article (as I will hopefully try doing daily columns for the Pacers now). But now, after being injured in a CHARITY game, Price is out for a couple of months.

And the Pacers surely can’t put Ford at starter. So with that, it seemed they were searching for a bunch of point guards in the draft. At the tenth pick, it would seem to be a reach for a point guard. With that, Indy picked Paul George. After that, however, it seemed they would get some point guards in the second round.

They didn’t. They picked Lance Stephenson, a shooting guard, and Magnum Rolle, who would add depth at the power forward position. But nobody knew Stephenson would be running the point in the Summer League and put it up some great numbers. And now, he is the starter.

Indy couldn’t land a point guard in free agency. Had they signed Kyle Lowry, Jordan Farmar, or Raymond Felton, they’d easily be the starter. But the Pacers are starting out new and fresh with Stephenson. Stephenson, to me, is going to be the next Gilbert Arenas. No, not with the guns or anything, and that’s pretty obvious. But that playing-wise.

If he can, Stephenson can be the future. Now you can’t judge everything from the Summer League. That’s way I am not fully sold on Paul George being the next Tracy McGrady. But can Stephenson shows signs of being a true point guard coming into the 2010-11 season? If the experts are really saying he is the next Gilbert, I can handle that.

I mean, Dime Magazine says he was already deemed to be an NBA star at the age of 17! To me, if Stephenson gets a lot of success, he would be he steal of the NBA Draft. Unless if Da’Sean Butler performs well, too, since he was predicted a lottery pick, but the injury ruined it, which made him a late-second-round pick. But other than, Lance is the steal.

And with that, Indy does not need to worry about the point guard situation. And they don’t need to worry about Tony Parker for 2011 or using Troy Murphy as trade bait for point guards. Apparently, Murphy would be bait for another forward most probably.

Stephenson is going to work well with the starting five, which will most probably be something like this:

PG: Lance Stephenson

SG: Dahntay Jones

SF: Danny Granger

PF: Troy Murphy

C: Roy Hibbert

This is something that I would look forward to. And Indy would also have a pretty good second-team, featuring the likes of T.J. Ford, A.J. Price (when healthy again), Brandon Rush (if he stays consistent), Mike Dunleavy (when healthy), and Paul George.

Really looking forward to Lance.

Taking Danny Granger out of discussion for the moment, Lance Stephenson can be the future.