New Orleans Pelicans: Three Takeaways from Lance Stephenson Workout

The New Orleans Pelicans workout of free agent dynamo Lance Stephenson on Monday has us asking all the old questions about Dell Demps

On Monday, Brett Dawson of The New Orleans Advocate reported that the New Orleans Pelicans had made yet another dive into the free agent pool, hosting a workout for dynamic and bombastic wing Lance Stephenson. It’s easy to rush to assumptions about the team’s interest in Stephenson, and I’ll admit I was quick to do so as well. The Pelicans have trained us to worry when any veteran with question marks is linked to the team, and ghosts of ill-advised moves past come haunting when news breaks. Several of those ghosts still linger on the team’s active roster.

More from Pelican Debrief

Yet jumping to any conclusions about Demps regressing as a team-builder (or to even assume that he’s changed based on this summer’s moves) after one offseason is silly. Signing Solomon Hill doesn’t mean he’s going to win Executive of the Year, and letting Lance work out in his gym doesn’t mean Demps is going to bring John Salmons back any time soon. One three month stretch does not a new General Manager make.

As Mason Ginsberg of Bourbon Street Shots noted on Twitter, there’s no harm in taking a look at guys who have interest, especially because the team already has a roster full of players on guaranteed contracts. If nothing comes of the workouts or “interest”, there is no harm done. Basically, it doesn’t hurt to try. Same thing your mom’s been telling you since you were ten and wanted to run for fifth grade Student Body President.

So what exactly can we take away from Monday’s news?

1) The Pelicans aren’t finished tinkering

There has been league-wide satisfaction with the Pelicans flipping a 180 and reversing course down the path of building around Anthony Davis. The front office prioritized two-way wings and youth, and came out of July with a bevy of versatile ones, twos, and threes who will provide healthy competition for one another come training camp. Yet by answering calls and meeting with players, it has become clear the team is open to further roster changes.

That could mean getting rid of Tyreke Evans somehow, as the two players have many similarities (and in many ways, Stephenson is a more modern version of Evans, and defends better). In a way, the Pelicans are showing their hand by displaying interest in similar types of players, and could lose any leverage they had left in the event that they do decide to trade Tyreke. They should not waive him, eat the money, and replace him with a player like Lance.

2) Desperate players are looking to New Orleans

In the past week, we’ve seen the Pelicans make Stephen Jackson’s short list, show interest in another player with a checkered past in Ty Lawson, and now workout a veteran with mentality questions of his own. That is concerning if you believe the Pelicans have the perfect cocktail of players already in their locker room, but interesting if you (like I) worry about New Orleans as a small basketball market.

Anthony Davis was always going to draw interest and make guys want to come play, but comments like these from Solomon Hill are heartening:

"“My main thing is showing him why he should stay. I’ll do the same thing for everybody else. My main focus is retaining Jrue Holiday.”"

3) Okay, Dell Demps might still have too much oversight

I can’t help but come back to this; the addition of Danny Ferry to the nucleus of New Orleans Pelicans decision-makers corresponded so directly to this complete change of philosophy that I feel he deserves a lot of credit for the nice value the team got in free agency this year. His teams in Atlanta played with the exact sort of versatility and well-roundedness that the Pelicans have attempted to add this summer. Now, though, it’s as if Mickey Loomis heading to Saints camp as August came around was enough for the Ferry-Demps duo to make these peculiar decisions. It’s tough not to blame Demps, if you have to pick one of the two.

It’s not just albatrosses like Tyreke Evans or Omer Asik; Norris Cole and Alexis Ajinca represent chances taken on players who were undeserving. Their downside was far less painful than what someone like Stephenson could become. If the goal here was to build a young, college-like culture and allow the new core to improve as a group, throwing a grenade like Stephenson into the mix might not be the best plan.

Next: The Curious Case of Lance Stephenson

As we’ve already said here at Pelican Debrief, there is a place in the league for Lance Stephenson, just not on the New Orleans Pelicans. One can only hope Demps sees the holes in his line of thinking, and realizes this group can’t afford to add someone like Lance.

Home/Pelicans News