Last week, a Lance Stephenson "source" (his dad? Does he have another handler?) told the media that St. John's is out of the running for the star Lincoln High guard.
Today, a "source" at St. John's says the Red Storm are no longer recruiting Stephenson, anyway.
Glad that's pretty much cleared up. Poops to you, Lance, you big poopie head!
There should be some serious question as to what effect Lance would actually have on the team. Take, for example, this scouting report from Draft Express, after the jump (spelling of Lance's name taken from DExpress):
When he didn’t receive a pass where he wanted it, he demonstrated noticeable signs of frustration by rolling his eyes or throwing his arms up in disgust. He was totally out of sync as he was forcing up shots in the lane and driving hard at one speed into traffic committing offensive fouls or turning the ball over otherwise. He didn’t seem to have any interaction with his teammates as they were reluctant to even throw him the ball in several instances throughout the game. With that, he showed very little movement without the ball, but rather posted up on the perimeter, using his overwhelming strength and size to receive passes.
Defensively, at least in the first half, he was lazy getting back and gambled all over the court, hindering his team tremendously. It also got very testy between LeFlore (AL) High School’s star center DeMarcus Cousins and Stevenson – where several "unintentional" half-hearted blows were exchanged. Stevenson sat the final 4 minutes of the first half with 3 fouls.
on the other hand, from the same report:
In the 2nd half, we saw a different Lance Stevenson. He played with a sense of urgency and showed why he is one of the most talented players in the country. His mid-range game was deadly, pulling up both right and left, elevating high in the air and creating a lot of space in the process. He had one very quick right to left cross over into a jump shot that was more than impressive. He displayed the ability to change pace going to the basket, and was able to get where he wanted to go. He didn’t seem to have tremendous speed or athleticism, but he has a very hard almost violent dribble than enables him to beat most players off the dribble at the high school level.
Stephenson was much better shooting off the dribble in every aspect: elevation, mechanics and accuracy. Off the catch however, he had a slow release and was kind of caught in-between shooting a jump shot or a set shot, which often resulted in a missed shot. When he went into his pull-up he was nearly picture perfect, although he did fade-away a little bit on several shots. His shot remains very streaky the further out he gets from the basket.
He was surprisingly unselfish for someone with his reputation also. He was willing to pitch the ball ahead to start a break or make the extra pass to a shooter in the half court. He didn’t throw any spectacular passes, but the fact that his teammates were neglecting him on a couple occasions did not affect his willingness to give the ball up. With that said, he still took several ill-advised shots his coach surely would have loved to have back.
Stevenson played really good on the ball defense, especially in the second half. When he sets his mind to shutting someone down, there aren’t too many players who can score on him. Off the ball was another story, as he seemed uninterested, coming out of his stance almost standing completely upright. He would often lackadaisically reach at slashing guards driving past him – part of that however was because he was in foul trouble for most of the game.
Stephenson seems like he thinks he’s above high school basketball, and there are legit concerns over whether he will think the same way about college ball as well.
It's something to think about for Memphis and whatever schools are actually trying to get this Lincoln High baller to sign for a year or two of college. Will Lance Stephenson's attitude help their team or hurt it? There is a lot to parse through with Lance...