The Atlanta Hawks made the right call moving on from Lance Stephenson

The Atlanta Hawks have had a really rough trot at the start of the season with injury causing the loss of key players. They then had Covid absolutely decimate their ranks with every single starter and almost every regular player missing time in the protocols or through injury.

As such the Hawks had to sign a massive amount of ten-day contracts as well as recall their G League assignee Jalen Johnson. They also recalled both of their two-way players Sharife Cooper and Skylar Mays. It is possible that Mays may have carved out a spot in the rotation as he has grasped this opportunity with both hands.

However, not every player has been able to step onto the court and perform, despite being given any number of opportunities during this time. One such player was Lance Stephenson who just was not able to recapture the glory of his early career.

The Atlanta Hawks allowed Lance Stephenson to walk.

News filtered out that Stephenson had signed with the Indiana Pacers on his second 10-day hardship contract. This is going to be the third iteration of this particular partnership. The Pacers were the team who molded Stephenson into a solid NBA player, to begin with.

However, both of these parties have seen better days. The Pacers are sitting in 13th in the Eastern Conference, only one place behind the Hawks but a full three games behind in the standings. Adding a player who averaged 1.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 11.7 minutes per game.

Now that the Hawks are getting a large number of players back there is no point in signing Stephenson to another deal. Despite having more than 500 games of NBA experience, and a knowledge of how Nate McMillan coaches, Stephenson did not do enough to warrant the Hawks taking a second glance at him.

The energy of younger players like Chaundee Brown and Malcolm Hill meant that Stephenson spent the majority of his time with the Hawks warming the bench. If he does not perform with the Pacers then it is likely we will not see Stephenson again in the league; unless this Covid crisis continues.