The long wait for where Lance Stephenson will land next in the NBA appears to be finally over. Shams Charania of The Vertical is reporting that Stephenson has agreed to a deal with the .
The Pelicans already have a full roster of guaranteed contracts, so adding Stephenson to the team doesn’t ensure that he’s going to make the final 15-man roster once the preseason is over. The team would have to either eat some guaranteed money by waiving a player or move someone off the roster in a trade to free up the spot for Stephenson. But before any of that ends up becoming a reality, he has to prove to them they should want to keep him around for the season.
The fall of Stephenson has been fascinating. He was the second-round sleeper pick of Larry Bird with the Indiana Pacers just six years ago. Stephenson was the 40th pick in the 2010 draft after being one of the top basketball prospects in high school in 2008 and 2009. After one season at Cincinnati, he declared for the draft and was considered too much of a personality risk to give a guaranteed first-round rookie contract to.
In his third season with the Pacers, Stephenson finally broke through and gave the Pacers a playmaking shooting guard next to Paul George, as he emerged as the team’s superstar. Stephenson was the wildcard in everything the Pacers could throw at an opponent. When Indiana tried to sign him to a five-year, $44 million deal in the summer of 2014, Stephenson declined wanting more money. Instead, he ended up on a three-year deal with the Charlotte Hornets for $9 million per season.
His one season with Charlotte was a disaster and he had the worst 3-point shooting season in NBA history (17.1 percent on 105 attempts). One year after inking him to the deal, the Hornets traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers for Spencer Hawes and Matt Barnes. Stephenson was supposed to bolster the Clippers’ bench, but he only lasted 43 games with the organization last season. They moved him at the trade deadline along with a 2019 first-round pick for three months of Jeff Green.
Courtesy: CBS Sports
