The Lance Stephenson 10-day contract: Day 8
By Ian Levy
Lance Stephenson is back in the NBA, proud owner of a 10-day contract from the Minnesota Timberwolves. However, this is a tenuous toehold. In two weeks, he could be on the road to redemption or he could be on a plane to China. Since we don’t know how many more days of NBA Lance Stephenson we have, each must be treated as a precious snowflake. Catch up on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Days 5 and 6, and Day 7.
Day 8: Well, it was fun while it lasted. Lance Stephenson did not play against the Denver Nuggets on Day 8, having suffered a sprained ankle the game before against the Cleveland Cavaliers. This was the final game for the Timberwolves under the span of Stephenson’s 10-day contract and, since the ankle is supposed to keep him off the court for at least two weeks, Lance likely won’t return from the All-Star break to another 10-day offer from Minnesota.
From here, the path disappears.
Lance will almost certainly play for another NBA team this season. Once the trade deadline passes (a week from day) the only way for a playoff team to add a key contributor is sifting through the free agent market. For all his rough edges, Stephenson has more potential than any of the other flotsam available and he showed over the past week that he’s at least capable of being quiet and solid with out Hulking out and pulling an organization down by the rafters.
This is Lance’s seventh season in the NBA and he is essentially still the same conundrum that he was on draft night. He has versatile talents — size, strength, intensity, shooting, passing defense. Decision-making is his biggest struggle and it leads to an uneven implementation of those talents. For two seasons, the Indiana Pacers provided (stumbled ass-backwards into?) enough structure to keep Lance’s basketball skills walking the straight and narrow. I don’t know about you, but I still can’t shake the memory of those two seasons, the power they hinted at, the nagging thought that maybe what Lance needed was a little more space to really unfurl his talent.
I know now that space is now what he needed. Space meant air and air feeds fire, and turnovers, and ghastly pull-up jumpers. Lance won’t ever be what I wanted him to be, or thought he could be, and reassembling his basketball dignity is going to take some work. But someone is going to give him a chance to do that. Does his track record deserve another chance? Probably not. Will his talent make sure he gets it? Of course.