Lance Stephenson was one of the best guards in the NBA two years ago. He was the ultimate triple-double threat, handling the ball on offense picking up assists, while being arguably the best rebounding guard in the NBA. Combine that with risky, yet highly effective defense, and you had a guy who was incredibly valuable.
Fast forward a season and Lance's image is a shadow of that. Charlotte's offense featured a ball dominant point guard along with no perimeter shooting, two things that are recipes for disaster with Lance.
This season, however, Lance is hoping for it to be different. Per Ben Bolch of the L.A. Times, Born Ready is on a mission:
"I'm on a mission to win a chip. I'm on a mission to do great this year. I'm on a mission to prove everybody wrong," said Stephenson. "I mean, a lot of people are doubting me and saying I'm a bad locker-room guy and all of those rumors, but there's no facts that I'm a bad locker-room guy, so I'm going to just show everybody and just go hard this year."
Stephenson is the perfect low risk, high reward move. With the Clippers' perimeter shooting, Lance will have more space to attack defenses off the dribble. Lance also gives the Clippers a high level distributer on the floor whenever Chris Paul is taking a rest.