Stephenson signs with Charlotte

[hpantazo]

The question is, what do the Pacers do now? There are very few options left out there.

[TeamGreen.dm]

9 mil!?!?! And were paying AB 8?!?! I'm shaking my head so much I had to call off work. I'm throwing up. We need players like Lance. Playmakers. and to know he only went for a million more than AB makes it even worse.

[Jailan34]

Wow, now that is a bargain of a contract, the only thing Lance has going against him was his antics in the playoffs. Offensively he is a very complete player.

[MBunge]

Not sure how Indiana undervalued him when Indiana was only offering 200k less per year than Charlotte. Quite interesting.

Opportunity cost.  Indy is over the cap, which means they have no way to replace Lance except to maybe resign Evan Turner.  So they may have just thrown away their chance to to the Finals because they didn't want to give Lance a few million more a year.

Mike

[Cman]

9 mil!?!?! And were paying AB 8?!?! I'm shaking my head so much I had to call off work. I'm throwing up. We need players like Lance. Playmakers. and to know he only went for a million more than AB makes it even worse.

Why? Charlotte had the space to make a straight up signing like that, the Celtics didn't. There are probably 30 other teams in the league that would have liked to sign Lance for $9M. Given what other players this year are signing for, it is a huge bargain.

[saltlover]

9 mil!?!?! And were paying AB 8?!?! I'm shaking my head so much I had to call off work. I'm throwing up. We need players like Lance. Playmakers. and to know he only went for a million more than AB makes it even worse.

Locker room stuff matters.  A lot of teams don't want to take a chance on bad character with a high-priced free agent, because it's harder to fix if the rumors are all true.  A cheap player, sure, you can cut him easily.

But also, Bradley makes $15 million over the next two seasons, while Lance makes $18 million.  That's 20% more.  And if Lance is as wonderful a bargain as you think he is, and he may be, he'll make a lot more from 2016-2018, when Bradley is scheduled to make $17 million.  If he puts the locker room antics behind himself, Lance should probably wind up making on average $3-4 million more per season over the 4 years of Bradley's contract, or near 50% more.  If he doesn't, it's because NBA teams just don't think he's worth the trouble.

[The One]

Wow!  Very nice for the Hornets.  Lance can take over a game when need be...can also lose his mind too.

This will be interesting.

[TeamGreen.dm]

Just waiting for a playmaker to wear green. And just knowing Stephenson went for similar money as Bradley, just disheartening. We have a collective of one skill players on this team besides maybe Smart. Nobody on this roster scares opposing teams. Lance IS that guy. Good for Charlotte

[beklog]

The failed Hayward deal now become a blessings in disguise! Nice job Hornets!

[Donoghus]

$9 million/year?

That's a great deal for Charlotte after the silly season deals we've seen the past 2 weeks.  Lance taking the gamble on himself here to look to really cash in, 3 years from now.

Would've sworn someone would've gone crazy money with Lance and overpaid him.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Teams must really be concerned about his attitude, this was a bargain for Charlotte no doubt.

And for those crying about AB and why no Stephenson for us... well, learn a little bit about cap space. We had none.

[ChefEricT]

I wonder if Indiana would have interest in Jeff Green now as a "replacement".  Shift George to SG, bring in Green as a complimentary scoring SF.  Maybe some sort of S&T involving Turner.  Just throwing it out there.

[Clench123]

This is rather a great business move on Stephenson's part

[hpantazo]

I wonder if Indiana would have interest in Jeff Green now as a "replacement".  Shift George to SG, bring in Green as a complimentary scoring SF.  Maybe some sort of S&T involving Turner.  Just throwing it out there.

I'm all for trading Green for something of value, but for Turner? Really? I mean, we can sign him right now for much less without giving up anything if we want to.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

After offering Hayward the max, I thought Lance's price would be around the same ballpark. I think Charlotte did very good here.