Former Indiana Pacers guard Lance Stephenson has come to terms with the Charlotte Hornets, according to reports, ending his career with the Pacers. His agent said in a statement that Stephenson was grateful to the city of Indianapolis and the Pacers organization and his teammates.
It’s unknown how President Larry Bird will fill the void left by Stephenson’s departure. If readers will remember, Bird had said earlier in the summer that he wanted to stay the course and planned to re-sign Stephenson. This move by Stephenson and his agent has some in the media questioning the move by Bird and the Pacers brass to stay the course.
Why would Bird say that he wanted to stay the course if he didn’t know what his players were thinking about? Bird forgot to talk to his players and it has left him with a big hole to fill – one that isn’t easy to fill overnight. The Pacers will have to go and find someone to replace Stephenson, but that’s something Pacers brass should’ve seen coming.
Pacers’ backup Donald Sloan told JeremiahBoyce.com last week that “for us to get where we need to go, I think we need to instill more trust in our bench. Late in the season, I think we needed those guys. It’d be good to go to the bench early in the year, so late in the year it’s a lot easier to throw them out there.”
If the Pacers would have used their bench more last year, they could have potentially found someone to replace Stephenson in case he was called away. Instead, they didn’t use the bench enough and so Bird and the Pacers brass find themselves in trouble.
