Every day I ask Lance Stephenson to give me a follow on Twitter. My hashtag on the request is simply #LetsTalk.
Why am I doing this daily? Well, persistence pays off for starters. I can honestly say that in my pursuit of a follow from Gerald Henderson, Kemba Walker, Bismack Biyombo, Cody Zeller, and the rest of the gang, it hasn’t ever worked. It did work with Matt Carroll, Jeff Adrien, and even Steve Martin. Those guys still follow me.
Another reason for requesting the follow is to seriously, just talk to Lance. I’m a fan of this team. I’m a fan of the players. I’ve always sold my site as one that treats the Hornets, the players, and every member of the organization like family. It’s just who we are. If someone talks negatively about a player, I defend them. If they speak poorly of the organization, I defend them. Don’t get me wrong, some things don’t deserve to be defended, and, just like family, I’ll call it out. I’m a homer, but I’m also honest about the team. I want to talk to Lance, not to scold him or to criticize him, but to just share my thoughts, opinions, and observations I’ve had since he was signed to the team. I also want to be able to sit with him so that he can also share HIS thoughts, opinions, and observations of the organization and the fans.
A lot of times I feel like a player has 2 sides; the “at home” guy who is a father, a husband, and just a regular guy, and there’s the “on court” presence. It’s like a role that they play; a character. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a lot of folks are just brutal in talking about Lance. I want to sit with him to say that not everyone feels the same way. We all want Lance to be comfortable with the team and his role.
When they signed him, I didn’t really fully understand the reasoning behind it. We had drafted PJ, Gary Neal was on the roster, and Gerald Henderson was still here. If anything, I saw a savvy defender in Hendo, a shooter in Neal, and PJ was supposed to be that guy to bridge the gap between those guys. Lance had averages similar to Hendo, but I knew that Lance could be the presence that the team needed to bring the swagger and attitude we had back in the days of Cap’n Jax and Crash. He was not going to be the prolific scorer that I thought we really needed. After the playoffs, I felt that we needed to find a scorer beyond Kemba and Al. When Al went down, so did playoff hopes because that was a primary scoring option.
I feel like when Lance got here, the entire city of Charlotte hopped on his shoulders and said, “You’re our savior.” Lance isn’t that guy. Lance was never going to be the guy scoring 20+ points a night. Lance is a defender, a facilitator, a swagger guy, and most importantly, a guy that will give you some of everything that you need night in and night out. Unfortunately, like some of our other players, he was not in the best of shape at the beginning of the year. The result became an injured pelvis and several missed games. Simply put, I feel like all of this pressure is breaking Lance’s back. As it stands right now, I want Jeff Taylor coming in at small forward when MKG goes out. That’s my logic. With the roster as it stands, Lance should come in for Hendo, Mo will be coming in for Kemba, Biz for Al, and Marv for Cody. Grouping Lance with Mo, JT, Biz, and Marv allows him to play his kind of game. He can hit a slashing Mo, Biz, or JT. He can also receive passes for easy layups in pick and roll situations with Mo. When I was in school, we would call Lance the garbage man. He scraps for rebounds, gets the put backs, and just takes all the trash that’s on the court and takes care of it. Someone’s gotta do it. As a team, we’ve grown too complacent and comfortable with Al doing his thing in the paint. The ball goes there and he goes to work. The other 29 NBA teams have seen it. It’s still effective, nut the time the ball is in Al’s hands needs to speed up. Get him the ball deep and let him make a move. If there’s nothing there, you have to move on to something else. This article isn’t about how we need to function as a team, it’s about Lance…
Lance,
Follow me on Twitter. Seriously, let’s talk. Let me be the level headed voice of the fans. We know what you’re capable of. We can see you’re struggling. Talk to me, Andrew, father of 2 sons, lifelong Hornets/Bobcats/Hornets fan and just tell me what’s wrong. We all as fans know that there’s a struggle you’re dealing with. We know what you are capable of. We saw it in Indy. We know you can do it here. We don’t expect you to be our savior. We just want you to have fun being you while being comfortable in your teal and purple skin in the Queen city. Talk it out with me and get your mind right. We need you to be #BornReady on that court. We need that character. You are that guy and we all believe in you. Turn a deaf ear to the critics and just talk to me, your friend, your family at Trade Street Post. You know what the hardest part of this article was? Trying to find 1 picture of you on the basketball court with a smile on your face. I want that to change. I coach an 11U baseball team, and one of my biggest concerns is whether the boys are having fun. If you aren’t having fun, it’s just a job, and you don’t enjoy it. I want to see a smile my friend. .I’ll take a vacation day from my real job and come down to just talk. Sometimes it helps to talk. I’m here if you need me. I would say that maybe MJ should talk to you like this, but sometimes, you need someone outside of it all to talk to, just to give you a glimpse of the outside looking in. Just let me know and I’ll keep an eye on my twitter account for that follow.
Andrew Lail
In the meantime – and as always…
Let’s Go Hornets!
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