Lance Stephenson Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Poll: Should The Hornets Trade Stephenson?

December 1st, 2014 at 9:40pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Hornets came into the season with ambitions of making a playoff run and challenging for one of the top seeds in the East, but a 4-14 start has team executives worried. The team has reportedly been aggressive in its attempts to find potential trades with other teams. Charlotte made a few big splashes last offseason, as recently noted by Hoops Rumors’ own Chuck Myron. From a financial standpoint, the biggest move was the acquisition of Lance Stephenson via free agency. His arrival hasn’t panned out the way the team had hoped and although it’s unclear whether the Hornets have dangled him in trade discussions, it’s obvious they are looking for upgrade on the wing, Stephenson’s primary position.

It has also been reported that Charlotte is receptive to moving fellow wing Gerald Henderson, so an addition to Stephenson on the court is just as likely, if not more likely, than a replacement. However, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe points out, Henderson’s $6MM player option for next season severely damages his trade value, which should dampen the hopes of getting an impact player in a trade.

The Hornets still have two quality young prospects in Noah Vonleh and Cody Zeller as well as their own 2015 first round pick. Those are three valuable assets, but finding a team willing to give up on a quality player this early in the season could be problematic. Few teams have the urgency to make that sort of move at this juncture.

Stephenson, who cannot be traded until December 15th, represents the player with the most value this season to a playoff contender. Do you think Charlotte should trade him?

Hornets Active In Trade Discussion

December 1st, 2014 at 6:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

6:33pm: Gerald Henderson has been very available for a few weeks, according to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter Link).

11:08am: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is probably among those the Hornets would make off-limits as they speak with other teams, Lowe tweets.

10:08am: The Hornets have been aggressive in reaching out to other teams about potential trades, Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes. GM Rich Cho and company are seeking upgrades at the wing and power forward, according to Lowe. That would cover every position except the ones where Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson play, and they’re essentially the only players the team isn’t willing to discuss, Lowe hears. It’s unclear whether the Hornets have dangled Lance Stephenson, but few would be surprised if they did, as Lowe writes, noting that Charlotte can’t trade the newly signed shooting guard until two weeks from today.

Charlotte is off to a surprisingly poor 4-14 start, the same record through 18 games as the franchise put up in 2004/05, its very first season, as Michael Lee of The Washington Post points out. The Hornets were roundly expected to continue their ascent up the Eastern Conference standings after grabbing the No. 7 seed last season and signing Stephenson to a three-year, $27.405MM deal this past summer, but it hasn’t worked out so far.

Fellow offseason additions Marvin Williams, Brian Roberts and Jason Maxiell can’t be traded until later this month, either, as our register of trade-eligibility dates shows, and the same is true of Jannero Pargo, who re-signed with the club. Walker apparently isn’t under consideration for a trade, but even if he were, the Poison Pill Provision would make salary-matching difficult in any swap, thanks to Walker’s four-year, $48MM extension. The Hornets have exhausted their cap space and are without a trade exception, further erecting barriers to any deal.

Eastern Notes: Price, Stephenson, Raptors

November 27th, 2014 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

A.J. Price has probably played his last game with the Pacers, since the 10-day window of Indiana’s second hardship provision for a 16th roster spot has expired and the team’s injured players are on their way back, observes Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star.

“I’m optimistic it’ll work out, if not here then somewhere else,” Price said. “Everything’s an option at this point. You can’t rule anything out at this point. If I’m not able to get a job here in the NBA, then overseas is definitely an option.”

Of course, the Pacers don’t have to waive Price, whom they picked up when the league granted the extra roster spot, just as the Thunder decided to keep their hardship addition, Ish Smith, and waive Sebastian Telfair instead. While we wait to see how it shakes out in Indiana, here’s the latest from around the Eastern Conference:

Hornets coach Steve Clifford has been reluctant to give Lance Stephenson crunch-time minutes in part because he doesn’t think the shooting guard has developed into a marquee player yet, despite the three-year, $27.405MM contract the shooting guard signed this summer. Michael Wallace of ESPN.com has the details. “To be fair, one of the things that’s made it more difficult for him is that he came here and people proclaimed him as the next superstar,” Clifford said. “He’s not a star. He’s a guy that has talent to become a star. To be a star in this league, you have to do it over years.”
This summer’s trade for Lou Williams was a win for the Raptors, as they snatched a player who has proven valuable on both ends of the floor so far in Toronto and whose departure has left the Hawks with an underwhelming bench, writes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
The Hawks plan to send John Jenkins and Adreian Payne to the D-League on Friday, reports Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It’ll be the second trip to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants for Payne, as our log of D-League assignments and recalls shows, and the first of the season for Jenkins, though he went on assignment in each of the past two seasons.

And-Ones: Howard, Waiters, Johnson, Pacers

November 12th, 2014 at 4:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

Dwight Howard makes several candid comments in an EPIX.com documentary about his departure from the Magic, his year with the Lakers, and the 2013 back injury that one of his surgeons believes had a decent chance to end his career, notes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Howard also delved into his relationship with Kobe Bryant.

“Before I got to the Lakers, I would talk to him [and] he would really help me out on the [down] low about how to become everything that I said I wanted to be. And I looked up to him and I looked up to everything he, as a basketball player, stood for,” Howard said, as Stein transcribes. “… [By the end of that season] I just felt so hurt and disappointed in the fact that the guy that I was expecting to be somebody who was gonna pass the torch, somebody to say, ‘Dwight, I’ll take you under my wing and I’ll show you how to get it done’ … it was none of that.”

Howard remains a fascinating figure even as his long-term deal with the Rockets has quieted the rumors that surrounded him. Here’s more from around the league:

The Cavs shopped Dion Waiters this past August but found no takers, according to Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com, who writes in an Insider-only piece. That conflicts with a report from early August that indicated the Cavs weren’t trying to trade the shooting guard.
Ivan Johnson has drawn offers from NBA teams and clubs overseas, a source tells HoopsHype’s David Alarcón (Twitter link and translation). He plans to make a decision about whom to sign with in the next couple of weeks, Alarcón adds.
Frank Vogel believes Lance Stephenson would have chosen to re-sign with the Pacers if he’d known Paul George would suffer his broken leg, as Vogel tells Ian Thomsen of NBA.com. “I think he probably — and we probably — would have approached it differently,” Vogel said. “The money would have to have been right, and we would’ve had to figure that out. But he would have had much more incentive to stay.”

And-Ones: Hornets, Celtics, D-League

October 29th, 2014 at 10:33pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The contracts of Alonzo Gee (Nuggets) and James Ennis (Heat) both became fully guaranteed today, and a partial guarantee of $250K has kicked in for Dewayne Dedmon (Magic), since both Dedmon and Ennis were on their teams’ respective rosters come opening night, and Gee was still on his team’s roster past October 29th, as is shown on our schedule of contract guarantee dates.

Here’s more from around the league:

The Celtics look to improve upon their 25-win season of a year ago, and began their quest at home tonight with a 121-105 victory over the Nets. In his season preview, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com believes Boston’s outlook has improved, and Rajon Rondo will have a strong season as he looks to silence his doubters and maximize his value heading into next summer.
In a separate article, Blakely looks at the top five players who changed teams and donned new uniforms this summer. Blakely also examined the five best rookies making their debuts this season, including Elfrid Payton, Jabari Parker, and Marcus Smart.
Hornets owner Michael Jordan believes that the addition of Lance Stephenson gives his team a legitimate shot to contend in the Eastern Conference, the Associated Press reports. Jordan especially likes Stephenson’s “fight,” saying, “One of the reasons why I admire his game is he takes on challenges. For us to get any place in the East, we need someone to challenge LeBron. He challenged LeBron.”
Former Sixers coach Larry Brown slammed the organization’s rebuilding through “tanking” plan, John N. Mitchell of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “I hate what’s going on in Philly,” Brown said. “They don’t have a basketball person in the organization. It makes me sick to my stomach.”
Malcolm Turner of Wasserman Media Group has been hired as the president of the NBA D-League, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link).
Roger Mason has been hired as the NBPA’s director of player relations, Howard Beck of Bleacher Report tweets. It is unclear if accepting this position would prevent Mason from continuing his playing career. The 34-year-old Mason made 25 appearances for the Heat last season, averaging 3.0 PPG in 10.4 minutes-per-game.

Southeast Notes: Stephenson, Nelson, Wizards

October 24th, 2014 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Magic have more money that counts against the cap for players who are no longer with the team than any other NBA franchise this season, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. That $14.2MM figure is likely to escalate soon with partial guarantees out to four of the team’s camp invitees. It also doesn’t include the cash going to the amnestied Gilbert Arenas, which doesn’t affect the cap. Still, Orlando isn’t alone, since “dead money” is piling up around the league as teams make cuts in advance of opening night. There’s more on the Magic amid the latest from the Southeast Division:

Lance Stephenson admits he wanted to re-sign with the Pacers, but he told Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star that he wasn’t ready to commit when the team set a tight deadline for him to accept its offer. The team quickly moved on and struck a deal with C.J. Miles on the second day of free agency, depleting its limited room against the luxury tax line, and that sealed Stephenson’s departure, as the new Hornets guard said to Buckner. “They didn’t have nothing else. They had no more money or anything. That was basically it right there,” Stephenson said. “Soon as I said no to that offer, they went and signed C.J. I figured they thought I had no chance of coming back, they just went on and signed C.J. … I felt like it was a wrap after that.”
The Pacers did follow up their five-year, $44MM offer to Stephenson with offers of three and four years, Buckner writes, refuting an earlier report.
Jameer Nelson‘s agent, Steve Mountain, said as recently as June that the point guard wanted to remain with the Magic for this season, but Nelson tells Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com that he instead felt it was time to leave Orlando. The Mavs signee referred to his departure from the Magic, who waived him at the end of June, as a mutual decision.
Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld doesn’t think the lack of a one-to-one D-League affiliate significantly hinders his team, but he nonetheless told Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post that the Wizards are looking into the possibility of having a D-League partner for future seasons.

Eastern Notes: Pierce, Vucevic, Stephenson

October 22nd, 2014 at 12:37pm CST by Chuck Myron

Paul Pierce figures coach Jason Kidd‘s departure from the Nets helped dampen the team’s enthusiasm to re-sign the forward to a new deal this summer, as Pierce tells reporters, including Andy Vasquez of The Record. Pierce cites Kidd as one of the primary reasons he encouraged the Celtics to trade him to Brooklyn in 2013, as Vasquez notes. There’s more on key figures who changed places as well as one who’s committed to stay where he is among the news from around the Eastern Conference:

Nikola Vucevic is careful to point out that he hasn’t put pen to paper on an extension with the Magic, but he nonetheless made it clear that he’s ecstatic about the agreement that agent Rade Filipovich and the team have reached, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel details.
Representatives for Lance Stephenson urged the Pacers to offload other players to find room for the shooting guard under the tax line this summer, with the names of Luis Scola and Donald Sloan arising in the talks, but Indiana held firm against doing so, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. The Alberto Ebanks client has said he cried when he told the Pacers he was signing with the Hornets instead, but Stephenson tells Charania that he hasn’t spoken to Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird since he made up his mind to join Charlotte.
Charania also hears from a source who confirms that Jason Maxiell is the leading contender for a regular season roster spot among the Hornets camp invitees, as the RealGM scribe writes in the same piece. Coach Steve Clifford seems in favor of keeping Maxiell, writes Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer.
Christian Watford will play for the Celtics‘ D-League affiliate assuming he clears NBA waivers, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). That means the C’s are following through on their plan to keep Watford’s D-League rights, though Pick hears that the power forward turned down many offers from European teams to instead go to the D-League.
Phil Jackson shared his scouting report on every Knicks player with Charley Rosen, writing for ESPN.com. The coach-turned-executive admits camp invitees Langston Galloway and Travis Wear are destined for the D-League.

Southeast Notes: Hayward, Hornets, Hawks, Heat

October 14th, 2014 at 9:16am CST by Chuck Myron

Owner Michael Jordan‘s presence in Charlotte’s pitch meeting with Lance Stephenson was key to the team’s ability to strike a deal with the shooting guard, but the mere presence of Jordan via video conference was enough for Gordon Hayward, as Hayward tells USA Today’s Sam Amick. Hayward was “ecstatic” about the idea of playing for the Hornets before the Jazz matched Charlotte’s max offer sheet this summer, Amick writes.

“I didn’t know what to expect … but they blew me away with their presentation,” Hayward said of the Hornets. “They came in and did a whole analytical presentation too, which was really, really impressive. It spoke to the analytical part of me. I was a computer engineer and math major in college, so that was really impressive to see. It just showed that they’re taking steps to try and become a next-level team and push toward trying to win a championship.”

There’s more from Amick’s profile of Charlotte’s legendary player-turned-owner amid the news out of the Southeast Division, as we pass along:

Hornets assistant coach Patrick Ewing was also in the team’s meeting with Stephenson, and head coach Steve Clifford credits the presence of the former Knicks star as a linchpin in the recruitment of Stephenson, a Brooklyn native, as Amick details.
The Hawks will probably release camp invitee Jarell Eddie, since he has a non-guaranteed deal and the team has at least partially guaranteed money out to 15 others, but the swingman has impressed the team’s brass so far, writes Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Justin Hamilton has only a partially guaranteed deal with the Heat and has missed time with a heart condition, but coach Erik Spoelstra on Monday gave a subtle hint that suggests the team intends to keep him around, observes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. Spoelstra pointed to Hamilton’s absence as a reason why the team’s frontcourt rotation is in flux, Winderman notes.

Western Notes: Stephenson, Kapono, Lee

October 11th, 2014 at 10:34am CST by Eddie Scarito

Lance Stephenson entered free agency anticipating the NBA signing a new TV deal, Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report writes. Stephenson was looking for a shorter deal that would allow him to have a shot at an even bigger payday down the line. The Pacers weren’t willing to agree to those terms, but the Mavericks were, notes Zwerling. Alberto Ebanks, Stephenson’s agent, confirmed reports that both sides had verbally committed to a two-year contract worth $20MM, but it was Dallas’ negotiations with Chandler Parsons that prevented the deal from being completed, Zwerling writes. “It was a domino effect,” Ebanks said. “Dallas did not think that Houston was going to let Parsons walk. Lance was very close to being a member of the Mavericks. When you’re a little further along into free agency, people are more in the position to pull the trigger when they see what they’re looking for.” It wound up being Charlotte that pulled the trigger on a deal.

Here’s more from out west:

Jason Kapono is performing well in training camp and is in the running for the Warriors‘ final regular season roster spot, Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group reports. “He’s in great shape,” head coach Steve Kerr said of Kapono. “I’m convinced he has a place in this league. Whether it’s with us or not, we’ll see.”
During a media day interview posted on NBA.com, David Lee was asked about the Warriors slow offseason that saw the team’s only notable additions be Shaun Livingston and Brandon Rush. Lee believes the roster continuity is good, adding, “I think it’s huge, yeah. I think first of all it’s a sign of things getting better. If you’re winning 25-30 games there’s going to be constant change. We’ve finally been very consistent these last couple years in winning games and I think that’s how players stick around and how teams stick around. I think using San Antonio as a model, when you have those core guys together year in and year out, I think the familiarity can really help, especially in pressure situations and close games.”
Jamel McLean scored the game winning basket in Alba Berlin’s 94-93 victory over the Spurs Wednesday. This might not be the last the NBA hears from McLean, Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders opines. McLean worked out for the Kings last summer, and should warrant more attention from the league next offseason, Koutroupis notes.

Southeast Notes: Stephenson, Brand, Magic

October 10th, 2014 at 9:02am CST by Chuck Myron

The Heat will take on LeBron James and his Cavaliers in Saturday’s preseason game for the first time since he left to return to Cleveland, but the sentiments between James and those he left behind in Miami aren’t as raw as the feeling between new Wizards forward Paul Pierce and the Nets. Pierce and his former team have conflicting stories about just what led to his departure, but the Wizards are surely glad about whatever it is that pried the 16-year veteran from Brooklyn. Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

Lance Stephenson cried when he told Pacers he was signing with the Hornets instead this summer, as he admits to Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling, but a surprise appearance by owner Michael Jordan in the team’s meeting helped seal the pitch. “When I shook [Jordan’s] hand, I was shaking,” Stephenson said. “I was very nervous because that’s like everybody in the world who played basketball’s idol. I thought I would never meet Michael Jordan, but when I finally met him and talked to him and got to know him, that was the best feeling ever.”
Kemba Walker‘s endorsement of Stephenson, whom he played against for years when they were both growing up in New York City, helped convince the Hornets to pursue the free agent shooting guard this year, as Zwerling details in the same piece.
Elton Brand‘s ability to guard opposing centers is the chief reason why the Hawks brought him back, and familiarity is what led the 35-year-old to choose Atlanta over a handful of other suitors this summer, as he tells Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic are starting their seasons by making strong impressions in Orlando, writes Ken Hornack of FOX Sports Florida. Timing is everything for these players as they have until the end of the month to sign extensions to their rookie contracts. Magic head coach Jacque Vaughn isn’t letting his players get distracted by their pending contract statuses. “My message to them has been I’m going to coach you. No matter if you’re in a contract year or your first year in the league. I’m going to coach you the same. Hopefully that puts a little bit of ease underneath their wings in the sense of, ‘Just go play basketball,’“ Vaughn said.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.