Lance Stephenson threw what would’ve been a beautiful pass had it actually been to someone not in the stands
The Memphis Grizzlies went out and traded for Lance Stephenson right before the 2016 NBA Trade Deadline to try and give their wing rotation a bit of a spark that wasn’t there before. However, when you bet on Stephenson, the thing that fans have learned over the years is that you have to take the good with the bad. If the Grizzlies hadn’t already learned that, they certainly did on Friday night against the Utah Jazz.
Stephenson was trying to drive off of the right wing and got solid penetration into the lane. Rather than go up against a premier shot blocker like Rudy Gobert, though, Lance thought it’d be a better idea to kick it out to a shooter. That would’ve been a fantastic idea if his pass out to the perimeter had actually gone to a player and not into the stands:
This play is just one of many moments throughout his career that make fans go, “Yep, that’s Lance Stephenson.” For how talented he is, this type of play has always been a problem for Lance—the random lapses in judgment that just look nonsensical to the maximum degree.
Who knows what the Grizzlies were expecting when they traded for him, but let’s be clear that this is exactly what they should’ve been thinking would happen more than a few times.