Is Evan Turner > Lance Stephenson?

[Granath]

I'll point out my post in another thread from January: http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=75877.msg1814427#msg1814427

If you look at it carefully, we already have a Lance Stephenson-type player on the roster: Evan Turner. Let's take a look at the statistics this year:

Stephenson: 31 mpg, 9.8 points / 6.1 reb / 4.8 assists / .7 steals / 2.3 TOs
Turner: 25 mpg, 9.2 / 4.5 / 4.4 / .9 / 2.4

The raw stats are very close, but this is a case for normalizing things PER 36:

Stephenson: 11.4 / 7.1 / 5.6 / .8 / 2.7
Turner: 13.1 / 6.4 / 6.3 / 1.3 / 3.4

That's so close it's almost uncanny, especially for players who (nominally) play the same position. Even their personal "best" years of their career are similar when looking at PER 36 numbers: 14/7/5 for Lance and 16/6/4 for Evan.

Lance has better potential, is better at the defensive end and 2 years younger. But he's also a known cancer and carries a $9m/yr price tag for 3 years. Turner has fit in well with the Celtics and costs $3.3m this year and next. So when considering everything - the stats, the attitude, the contracts, their respective ages and that all elusive "potential" - would anyone really take Lance over Turner? I'd say Lance is the better player, but not by that big of a margin. When factoring in the attitude and contract, I'm happy to have Turner instead.

[Fafnir]

Both are supposed to be locker room headcases, though Stephenson certainly seems to be letting it effect his on the court play more. That could also be partly due to coaching/handling though.

Stephenson has been more productive but not by nearly as much as last year, shocking decline from Lance.

[Celtics4ever]

He was not in INDY, ET weakness is he needs the ball in his hand to play well.   He does not play well off the ball.