IC Cold Links: Can Lance Stephenson Handle A Little Success With Pacers?

I’m fine with guys like Foster talking a bit, because I know it gets under the other team’s skin and maybe throws them out of their comfort zone a bit. But with Lance, I feel like he needs to show he can be responsible and mature for a whole year before he earns the right to agitate like the others.

I liked a lot of what I saw from him last night, but I almost hope he has a few setbacks to help remind him to stay humble and not get ahead of himself (as long as the Pacers keep winning, that is). I’m glad though that he has mature veteran leaders around him to help along the way – glad to hear Roy said that publicly about him, it shows that he’s got an eye on Lance.

He’s certainly got the talent to be a top player for us, it’s just a matter of making sure his self-image doesn’t get out of hand.

Lance definitely needs to mature. It was a good game, but not great by any means.

Hopefully it does means he’s found his shot. That will really help us out.

The Lance love is overblown. He was very good last night for a few important minutes, and he’s looked like an absolute beast for seconds at a time in the past. I really love his potential to be a great passer, and I love his size for the position. The sample size has, however, been pretty damn small, and he clearly needs to spend A LOT of time on his jumper and on playing under control. Half the time he simply doesn’t look like he knows what he’s doing. If we can say anything definitively positive about Lance this year it’s that he looks like he cares.

On the other hand I’m not getting the Lance hate either. Calling him the “worst” or indicting him for the staircase incident at this point in his career both seem like tactics to piss people off, rather than legitimate points of conversation. I don’t really like him as a player yet, and I think he needs to mature, but damn, it’s not like he’s had three years to prove himself and has yielded Brandon Rush like numbers, and there’s no denying he’s talented enough to make the end of most NBA rosters. Same can’t be said for a few other guys on our squad, starting with Jeff Pendergraph and perhaps Dahntay Jones.

the kid played GREAT. you see his D? it was actually…well probably just a bit above average, but that’s a leaps and bounds improvement. it was by far his best pro game and you could see his good play giving him more and more confidence as the game went on. he seems to have come a long way in his maturation, if getting a little mouthy with the opposing bench after (finally, which is how I’m sure he also feels) having a good game, I’d say there are worse basketball sins. hell, look at Amundson trying to get an under 10 second dunk in a blowout win and rightfully getting clobbered for it.

far as guys not heaping praise on him, one, it wasn’t THAT great a game. two, I’m sure that’s by design. the kid’s nickname is friggin “Born Ready,” he’s had his ass kissed his entire life because he’s a good basketball player. you don’t start that up again and show him that if you can play ball you don’t have to continue to improve upon yourself.

Al Horford tore his pectoral last night, out 3+ months. I don’t mean for it come off as me saying “awesome, another team’s best player got hurt!” but that’s going to help us in the standings. I REALLY want to host a playoff series.

I got in late on this one. Not that what I’m going to say will really require a ton of feedback.

Anyone who’s followed what I’ve wanted out of this team over the past few years knows that I love having young, potential stars on the team.

I’m not so sure a top 10 HS recruit (once the clear cut #1 in his class) that goes to a solid program and ends up being a 2nd round pick after his Freshman year still has the kind of superstar potential he once did.

The physical tools are there. He’s not a 5 star athlete at the pro level, but solid size for a combo gaurd and probably 4-4.5 star athlete.

How many minutes he should get in the future, and whether he should go to D-league for some seasoning may depend on how the team is doing as a whole, how Hill is doing in his spot minutes at the 1, and how AJ is doing in his minutes….and of course, most importantly how Lance is doing in his minutes.

I can see two likely trajectories for him at this point…but, it’s still early.

1. He quickly gains confidence, a reliable jump shot, and a better feel for the game and becomes one of the better bench scorers in the league.

2. He continues to look out of place at either gaurd spot, but does enough good things and improves slowly, but steadily enough to remain at the end of our rotation…but we continue to search for our backup point gaurd and 6th man spark plug scorer off the bench…and someone else pays Lance for his unrealized potential next season.

I’m hoping to see #1 happen, but I fear #2 is slightly more likely.

As for his play in the ATL game. Not hating, just calling it like I see it. That looked to me like a self-absorbed underacheiver having some better luck with the ball going in the hoop. He rarely passed, played pretty reckless….but he was effective so I can’t take that away from him. It always looks better when the ball goes in the hoop. I can tell you this for sure. Nothing I saw last night made me think that the words “point gaurd” or “reliable backup” should be any less of a pipe dream than two days ago.

If he can irritate the opposing team with his mouth, I’m perfectly fine with that. Reggie Miller was one of the biggest trash talkers ever. It has a place in basketball because some players will become agitated and start trying to do things they can’t do or shouldn’t do. If you can gain a psychological advantage, do it. Now obviously Lance has to back up that talk with his play.

I wouldn’t even worry about him being half as good as Miller. . . . thats a Pipe Dream.