8 points, 9 seconds
Fansided

Shooting Guard Tuesdays: Lance Stephenson’s mid range shooting

By Tony East

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - NOVEMBER 27: Lance Stephenson #1 of the Indiana Pacers stares down the defense of the Orlando Magic at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on November 27, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.(Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - NOVEMBER 27: Lance Stephenson #1 of the Indiana Pacers stares down the defense of the Orlando Magic at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on November 27, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.(Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Lance Stephenson is known to take bad shots at times. This year, those shots aren’t so bad because, well, they are going in.

Ah, Lance Stephenson. The best show in town. Lance is one of the most entertaining players on the Indiana Pacers to watch on a night to night basis for his energy, antics, and elite mid-range scoring.

Wait, what?

Stephenson has found some new life in the midrange. While the league zigs, Lance is zagging. Teams are letting him shoot mid-rangers, largely because it is considered a statistically bad shot.

Lance doesn’t care.

He’s letting them fly, and he’s dropping them in. He is second to Darren Collison amongst rotation guards on Indiana in shooting percentage from 10-16 feet, knocking down 50 percent of them, and he is first on the team amongst guards when shooting from 16 feet to the three-point line, canning 44 percent of these shots.

Lance Stephenson of the Indiana Pacers
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – NOVEMBER 24: Lance Stephenson #1 of the Indiana Pacers reacts after making a shot in the second half of a game against the Toronto Raptors at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on November 24, 2017, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Pacers won 107-104. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Think of some elite mid-range shooting guards. The first one that comes to mind is probably DeMar DeRozan. DDR shoots 49 percent from 10-16 feet and 39.8 percent on 16 foot or longer two pointers.

Lance is shooting better from both distances. Better than DeMar DeRozan.

Lance has entered an unprecedented ether. Both of these shooting percentages are career highs for the Cincinnati graduate. Even crazier is that the last time Lance shot over 40 percent from 10 to 16 feet, he played for the Charlotte Hornets. Now, he’s shooting 50 percent.

As for the long twos, this is only his second time ever over 40 percent, with last year being the other season. He only played in 18 games last season, making this season far more impressive.

These improvements have come from seemingly out of nowhere. Lance is hitting tough shots in what seems like every game, no matter who is guarding him. Per nba.com, Lance has hit 29/67 (43 percent) of his non-wide-open two-point jumpers. That’s just Lance excelling at difficult and arduous shots, like this one with Kenneth Faried glued to him:

That small little fade-away is Lance using his athleticism to get his jumpers to go down. His explosiveness is what makes him so effective as a player in general, so it is great to see Lance using it to his advantage on his jump shot.

More from 8 Points, 9 Seconds

He’s also shooting 46.8 percent off pull-up two-point jumpers, which mostly are mid-range shots. What is interesting about these pull-ups is they are all a unique and entertaining experience; half because they are gone by Lance and half because they are all so different.

Once he is done prancing up the floor, Lance decides what he is going to do next. If that is shoot, start counting his dribbles. On shots inside the three-point arc, Lance is shooting 21/37 (56.8 percent) when he dribbles one or fewer times, and 48/113 (42.5 percent) when he shoots after dribbling two or more times.

His highest two-point shooting percentages are off of two dribbles and zero dribbles, he is shooting over 60 percent in both scenarios, just scorching numbers. His circus level fun shines through on those two dribble shots, where he is canning 63.2 percent of them:

Two dribbles are the perfect amount of time for Lance to use his athleticism without doing something crazy. In the above clip, he dribbles once, hesitates to read the defense, dribbles hard again, ponders his next move, then pulls up and scores.

His mid-range scoring has been great, but the final aspect to it is the excitement and energy it brings to the team. It is harder to quantify, but when Lance Stephenson hits shots like this, the whole team gets a boost:

If Lance can keep up his blistering mid-range scoring, he will continue to be a net positive on the court. If he can’t, he’s still Lance and he’s really fun.

Next: Victor Oladipo took inspiration from Russell Westbrook

Seeing him knock down tough shots at an elite rate has been, and hopefully continues to be, awesome.

Home/Pacers News