Los Angeles Lakers: Grading the Lance Stephenson signing

We hand out a grade for the Los Angeles Lakers signing of Lance Stephenson to a one-year deal.

The Los Angeles Lakers were very active during NBA free agency. The Lakers only retained one of their five free agents and waived two more players. They added multiple new faces to the roster this summer, one of them being Lance Stephenson.

The Brooklyn, New York native has become well traveled in the NBA in recent seasons. The Lakers will be the seventh team that he has played for in five seasons. It is a trend that he is hoping ends soon, as he is hoping to parlay his one-year deal with Los Angeles into a multi-year deal. As things currently stand, that will be a tall task for Stephenson.

Right now, at best, he is the third shooting guard on the depth chart. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Josh Hart will battle it out for the starting spot, and the person who doesn’t land that should be the first shooting guard off the bench.

If you thought minutes would be tough for Stephenson to come by at shooting guard, they are even tougher at small forward. He will not be taking minutes away from LeBron James, Brandon Ingram or Kyle Kuzma. He could provide minutes as the primary ball handler, but he would be third, at best, in that pecking order as well behind Lonzo Ball and Rajon Rondo.

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That versatility is one positive to the Lakers bringing Stephenson in. He can fill a number of different roles depending on who he is on the court with.

Stephenson has shown an ability to be a facilitator. His 19.9 assist percentage in his career is impressive given he has played approximately two percent of his minutes in his career at point guard, according to Basketball-Reference.

In addition to the playmaking, Stephenson is an excellent rebounder given his position. Unfortunately, the negatives outweigh the positives with Stephenson.

Signed for his tough-nosed, defensive style of play, Stephenson hasn’t played much defense in recent seasons. His defensive rating was 108 last season and he hasn’t had a season with his offensive rating being better than his defensive rating since 2013-14.

Last season, Stephenson had a Real Plus/Minus of -3.33, which ranked him 91st out of 107 shooting guards. His defensive RPM of -3.01 was ranked 101st out of 107. He was 44th with an offensive RMP of -0.32, however. His PER of 12.47 last season also comes in below the average rating of 15.

Unless he drastically turns things around, giving minutes to Stephenson would seem to be a detriment to the team. Caldwell-Pope and Hart are both better fits, and arguably better players at this point in time.

One of the biggest knocks against this deal has nothing to do with Stephenson. He was offered a contract and accepted it. However, that contract should have never been offered.

Stephenson and the Lakers agreed to a one-year deal worth $4.5 million, which is above the league minimum. That is money that could have been spent more smartly, possibly on a center, such as retaining Brook Lopez. Center is the biggest question mark on the team right now, but that would not be the case had they spent a little more on the position.

This isn’t a deal that will hurt the Lakers too much. It is only a one-year deal, so the Lakers can move on after this season if need be. However, while it may not hurt them too much, it was still a poor deal.

The only saving grace is that Stephenson offers versatility in case of an injury. He is also someone LeBron James wanted on the team, so that helps keep this grade from being a failing one, but just barely.

Grade: D-