by The GM on July 6 at 11:18AM
After just one Summer League game it seems that a lot of Pacers' fans are ready to hand the starting point guard job to Lance Stephenson. It's going to take a little more than one game to convince me, but I did like what I saw from him yesterday. If you are looking for some video, please check out Pacers Digest, who literally has broken down the video piece-by-piece.With summer league play, it is very tricky to get a real read on a player's true abilities. Look at some of the past summer league standouts: Anthony Randolph, Marco Belinelli, Jerryd Bayless, etc. These guys all have been brilliant during the summer and have struggled to match those outputs, due to lack of playing time mostly. So, lets not get carried away with proclaiming Stephenson the savior of the team...at least for right now.
Stephenson did show that he was able to get by his defender without any trouble. When his defender was able to keep in front of him on the drive he was making some very nice passes. However, that is not all of what the point guard position is about. Getting guys into place on the offense, running the offense, controlling the tempo of the game, those things really determine a point guard's value. If the Pacers just wanted a guy to penetrate and dish, then Jim O'Brien should have been starting TJ Ford all of last season.
At only 19 years old, Stephenson showed a lot of promise, but I would wait to see what lies ahead of him during training camp and the season. Maybe the Pacers got the steal of the draft. We will see in time.
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