benji wrote:What a non sequitur. What does this even have to do with anything? lol
Everything. Was saying that it was better for the Pacers to keep Kawhi over Lance. (not that they couldn't have kept both but...)
benji wrote:What a non sequitur. What does this even have to do with anything? lol
Andrew wrote:Looks like Bill Simmons is a Heat fan now:
https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/ ... 3767175168
Lance is a jackass. Throw him out. This was coming for 2 games.
Andrew wrote:but there's really not that much difference with what Lance Stephenson is doing, except he's just one man instead of the whole team (minus Joe Dumars). I think the main difference is the Nostalgia Goggles.
Andrew wrote:It's hypocritical for Bill Simmons to claim Stephenson should've been thrown out for an aggressive steal that caught Cole in the face, while gushing about the dirty play and flat out muggings that the Bad Boy Pistons would engage in.
YaoKnowWhat_I_Ming wrote:Sooooo, did Lance really going from having a contract extension in the first two games of the ECF, to getting kicked to the curb by Larry Bird? A la the J.R Smith postseason?
King Mellow wrote:George Hill is not a starting caliber PG
Stephenson was caught by television cameras blowing into the ear of Heat star LeBron James. That led to a conversation between Stephenson and Bird.
"He said, `Don't do it again,"' Stephenson said Friday, recalling his talk with Bird. "So I'm not going to do it again."
A reporter asked Paul George after Game 6 whether he'd like to see the Pacers bring Stephenson, who entered the league alongside George as members of the 2010 draft class, back into the fold for next season. The answer from Indiana's All-Star forward raised a few eyebrows:
"I mean, I don't know," George said. "That's for [team president] Larry [Bird], [general manager] Kevin [Pritchard], for them to decide. You know, it'd be great. We came in this league together. It'd be great for us to continue our journey together. But he's played a huge year this whole season and in this postseason, so it's definitely put pressure on us to make decisions going forward with Lance."
[Roy] Hibbert didn't come out and identify the player directly to NBA.com's David Aldridge, but he was talking about Lance Stephenson on March 28 after a loss in Washington, when he said "there's some selfish dudes" in the locker room. [...]
After Stephenson missed out on the All-Star team, he changed. He started a bit of a personal vendetta against East coaches, wanting to personally send a message in those games, which took him further out of the flow on some nights, sources said. Overall, the team noticed a shift in Stephenson from a more team-oriented approach to a more self-oriented focus, where he started obsessing about his statistics. People within the team believed his upcoming free agency was also a motivating factor for Stephenson, who wanted to enhance his value, something he believed suffered when he didn't get an All-Star nod.
As a result, Stephenson started annoying his teammates at both ends. Not only did he start dominating the ball more — his assist rate dropped dramatically in the second half of the season — but he was robbing numbers from his teammates. He has always had a habit of so-called "stealing rebounds," jumping in front of or over a teammate who had an uncontested rebound to get it for himself. This phenomenon reached a new level in the back half of the regular season. Hibbert, who had his rebound totals heavily analyzed by the media and fans, was often a victim in these friendly-fire rebounds.
Stephenson's act had long worn thin by late March. When the players had meetings to address issues with the sudden struggles, Stephenson sometimes wasn't involved. Occasionally he appeared to be unaware they were even happening. Most players on the team, now that they were losing, shared similar feelings about Stephenson, but did not vocalize their problems publicly.
King Mellow wrote:George Hill is not a starting caliber PG
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