We Are Stuck With Him - The Lance Stephenson Thread II

[BobsBuddy]

I agree with the comment about Clifford is just making statements to facilitate an off season trade.
The truth is MJ wanted Lance here and everybody agreed because we first couldn't get Hayward or Parsons. At lease Cho got a 3rd season Team Option written into his contract. I'm not sure whether Lance has much value in a trade unless it's during the draft to move up from our 2nd round pick position. And even then we would have to consider the contracts we take back by moving up. NYKs is where Lance belongs and the trade would allow us to pick at 31 instead of 40 and free up cap space. NYK has massive cap space so players coming back would not be an issue.

I was sitting close to the Hornets bench last Monday vus Boston. Lance didn't play or participate in team huddles on timeouts.
It looked like he was in Clifford's doghouse. "Happy I'm in Charlotte" I would say that too if I was earning $9 million this season?

[yosemiteben]

Check out part 2 of Cliff's presser from last night - LINK

Skip to 1:20 for when he starts talking about Lance.

I know people are going to freak out about his comments about playing with the rotation, but let's try to ignore that for a second and think about whether we really think something else is going on or if Cliff is being stand up in what he's saying. Before watching this I really thought Lance must have done something and Cliff was just covering, but the arguments Cliff is making fit with his tendencies so now I'm wondering if it really is just Cliff seeing if we can get more out of PJ than Lance.

I'm not at all surprised that Taylor is starting over Lance, I don't think Lance fits with our starting lineup at all.

[tondi123]

It may be that Cliff already knows Lance won't be back next season so why not see what PJ can do with his minutes. Maybe there is already something in the works to move him in the offseason and they don't want to risk him having a serious injury or something prior to the end of the year. Who knows.

[Hornet Mania]

So after all those months of playing like utter dog crap, Cliff just not figured out Lance isn't working out? I don't buy it. It also doesn't jive with the fact over the last few weeks Lance was playing his best ball (still not great, just better) all season. He's covering something up, but I agree with y'all that Lance is probably a goner in the summer.

[fatlever]

fauxbonnell posted this pic on twitter, the reaction from fans against Bonnell on his story about Lance. Obviously that middle comment is from LP.

[DY_nasty]

that's awesome

[Liver_Pooty]

I laughed out loud when I saw that guy say "ill try to get you fired"

[gipper08]

This was Cliff's plan all along. HE wants to control things and make master plans. I bet the Lance situation honestly excites him.

[mrknowitall215]

I laughed out loud when I saw that guy say "ill try to get you fired"

[yosemiteben]

This was Cliff's plan all along.

I mean, I'm thinking Cliff's plan was to, you know, have Lance play well so we could win more games.

I don't think I understand your point?

[gipper08]

This was Cliff's plan all along.

I mean, I'm thinking Cliff's plan was to, you know, have Lance play well so we could win more games.

I don't think I understand your point?

Yes. I understand that you don't understand.

He wanted Lance to play the "Clifford way". He never thought Lance was a star or even a starter. He set out from day one to prove himself right.

He planned this scenario(DNPs) long ago.

[yosemiteben]

Yeah, I'm just not willing to blame Cliff for the fact that Lance literally could not throw the ball in the ocean. If Cliff wanted to bench Lance, he had tons of cover to do it all season.

Lance has been poor on defense and a major liability on offense practically the entire season.

ETA: For as much as we have talked about Lance getting better, here is his post-ASB stat line: 20 mpg, 39.2% FG, 16.4% 3PT, 68.8% FT, 3.0 rpg, 2.6 apg, 1.6 to.

Hell, Lance averaged more minutes pre-ASB than anyone other than Al and Kemba. I don't know why you'd assume that he didn't want to play him - he sure didn't have a problem sitting Biz early this season.

[gipper08]

Yeah, I'm just not willing to blame Cliff for the fact that Lance literally could not throw the ball in the ocean. If Cliff wanted to bench Lance, he had tons of cover to do it all season.

Lance has been poor on defense and a major liability on offense practically the entire season.

The only part of the season that is relevant is pre injury rest/sitting and Lance and Kemba were basically shooting the same but Lance was rebounding and creating. Kemba was given the freedom to recover and Lance was buried.

As for cover, YOU ARE RIGHT and proving my point. He did not bench him till now despite the cover because that was not the plan. This was the plan. Now and not then.

[yosemiteben]

Yeah, I'm just not willing to blame Cliff for the fact that Lance literally could not throw the ball in the ocean. If Cliff wanted to bench Lance, he had tons of cover to do it all season.

Lance has been poor on defense and a major liability on offense practically the entire season.

The only part of the season that is relevant is pre injury rest/sitting and Lance and Kemba were basically shooting the same but Lance was rebounding and creating. Kemba was given the freedom to recover and Lance was buried.

As for cover, YOU ARE RIGHT and proving my point. He did not bench him till now despite the cover because that was not the plan. This was the plan. Now and not then.

Edited my last post after I made it so will post here too. Lance averaged pretty much the same minutes pre-ASB as Al and Kemba, I don't know why you are talking like he played less. In November Lance played 32.8 minutes, Kemba played 34.5 and Al played 32.2.

What is the plan? What is the logic in letting him play through extended slumps when he is clearly hurting the team, when Cliff doesn't want Lance all along, then benching him at the end of the season when his play is improving? To conceal Lance's potential value so he's immovable? I don't get it.

[BlackOutBuzz]

Yeah Cliff was pretty adamant that Lance was his starter from the moment he signed.

Actually it's pretty funny in hindsight: Kemba, Lance, Marvin, and Al were all publicly confirmed as starters while MKG's spot wasn't as certain. Fast forward and MKG is our most impactful player (though Cliff should've seen that coming), Marvin and Lance have been supplanted, and there's a fair argument that the team has been better with Mo and Biz instead of Kemba and Al.

[Eoghan]

Yeah, I'm just not willing to blame Cliff for the fact that Lance literally could not throw the ball in the ocean. If Cliff wanted to bench Lance, he had tons of cover to do it all season.

Lance has been poor on defense and a major liability on offense practically the entire season.

The only part of the season that is relevant is pre injury rest/sitting and Lance and Kemba were basically shooting the same but Lance was rebounding and creating. Kemba was given the freedom to recover and Lance was buried.

As for cover, YOU ARE RIGHT and proving my point. He did not bench him till now despite the cover because that was not the plan. This was the plan. Now and not then.

Edited my last post after I made it so will post here too. Lance averaged pretty much the same minutes pre-ASB as Al and Kemba, I don't know why you are talking like he played less. In November Lance played 32.8 minutes, Kemba played 34.5 and Al played 32.2.

What is the plan? What is the logic in letting him play through extended slumps when he is clearly hurting the team, when Cliff doesn't want Lance all along, then benching him at the end of the season when his play is improving? To conceal Lance's potential value so he's immovable? I don't get it.

The minutes are roughly the same but Lance got some high-profiled benching during crunch time a few games so it seemed like he got buried. The early part of the season everyone was playing terribly. For some reason only Lance was to blame even though he was leading the team in rebounds and had similar assists as Kemba.

I've given up looking for any logic in what Clifford does.

[Braggins]

I totally forgot about Clifford publicly naming Kemba, Lance, Marv, and Al as starters before training camp but not MKG lol... I remember that making me suspicious that Clifford actually was as dumb as he seemed at times last year, but I was still giving him the benefit of the doubt at that point. LIsten to BD. Don't try to make sense of Clifford's madness. It will drive you to his level of insanity, and he probably makes his decisions with a dart board or something like that anyways.

[Liver_Pooty]

I totally forgot about Clifford publicly naming Kemba, Lance, Marv, and Al as starters before training camp but not MKG lol... I remember that making me suspicious that Clifford actually was as dumb as he seemed at times

Lance was basically penciled in as a starter after that contract. Zeller was coming off of an overall bad rookie year. I think he was just trying to give Henderson due diligence in that aspect. No one in their right mind thought MKG would come off the bench. You don't bring defensive stoppers off the bench. Tony Allen and Matt Barnes start due to defense. You come off the bench if you can score.

[gipper08]

Paraphrasing Lance's interview in Indy today "here I was able to play freely. In Cha there is a little button that says "dont do that!!"."

[catch20two]

Paraphrasing Lance's interview in Indy today "here I was able to play freely. In Cha there is a little button that says "dont do that!!"."

That little button would be Clifford's paralyzing system. He wants his players to play like robots since he coach like one.