Many basketball scouts had deemed Lance Stephenson, UC freshman basketball player, “born ready,” as in ready to play in the NBA very early on in his basketball career. However, I believe that, although he is very skilled and talented, the all-time New York state high school scoring leader is not ready for the NBA. He still needs to improve in a few areas before he declares himself eligible for the draft.
One of Stephenson’s strengths is driving to the basket. But he does tend to over dribble sometimes and force up shots that lead to off balance floaters and blocked shots that would have been baskets in high school.
I don’t think he has fully grasped that things that seemed easy in high school are not that easy in college. It would be more beneficial to pass the ball off to his teammates for an easier shot in those situations.
Stephenson has a very good jump shot, but tends to be very eager to shoot, sometimes at inopportune times. Fifty-nine percent of his field goal attempts are jump shots, but he only converts 28 percent of the time. He takes three-pointers at very inopportune times, attempting three three-pointer’s a game, but only connecting 15 percent of the time. Regardless, he still averages 12 points a game.
He seems to lose the clutch opportunities in close games. For example, against Gonzaga in the Maui Invitational, Stephenson missed a three-pointer with 56 seconds left in regulation, and missed what would have been the game-winning layup at the end of overtime.
In the St. John’s game, he turned the ball over with five seconds left in a tie game. This led to a St. John’s score and win. However, he did make two clutch free throws at the end of the game to beat Connecticut.
Lance Stephenson is an amazing basketball player and will no doubt play in the NBA in a couple of years. Many of these areas are just freshman mistakes that with time and practice he can improve.
However, it would suit him better to perfect these areas at the college level, so that he can perform better at the professional level. He does many things right, but still has farther to go with learning and understanding all the concepts of the game of basketball. Maybe it is my selfishness as a UC student to want Stephenson to play at UC for two or three more years, but unlike the analysts, I do not think he is “born ready” for the NBA.