Report: Lance Stephenson holding private workout for Sixers among others

Can you ever have enough wings on your roster? For Daryl Morey over the years, the answer to that question has overwhelmingly been no, you can not ever have enough wings. So it should come as no surprise that the Sixers will be attending a workout for an unsigned, experienced guard-forward. According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Lance Stephenson is hosting a private workout Friday afternoon which a Sixers rep will be attending. Along with the Sixers are other NBA contenders in attendance in the Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets, and Brooklyn Nets.

The first thing to note off the bat is that Stephenson has not even played in the NBA since the 2018-19 season. (He most recently played for the Liaoning Flying Leopards of the Chinese Basketball Association in 2019-20.) The second thing to note is that Stephenson was not effective in the late stages of his career — take your pick of advanced metrics and you’ll find they generally paint Lance as a net negative since first leaving the Pacers after the 2013-14 season. He’s a career 44.4 percent from the floor, 31.5 percent from 3PT and 68.5 percent from the line. Where Lance might be able to hang his hat should he make a comeback is on the defensive side of the floor, where he’s always been pretty intense. But even there, with two years removed from the NBA game and turning 31 years old in less than a month, his value is questionable.

All that said, I understand why the Sixers would attend. It never hurts to perform your due diligence. And while the Sixers are at a full roster by regular season standards (15 players) and have filled both two-way contract spots, they can carry up to 20 players into training camp. It may not hurt to have a guy like Lance Stephenson around to step up the level of intensity and competition in training camp. Additionally, it’s no sure thing the Sixers hang on to Anthony Tolliver, whose contract becomes guaranteed if he’s still on the roster after September 6th — so there could be an open roster spot on the horizon.

Ultimately though, I don’t see the Sixers adding Stephenson. They’re already chock full of bench wings with Matisse Thybulle, Furkan Korkmaz, Georges Niang, Shake Milton and Isaiah Joe. You could even throw Jaden Springer in that mix. That on top of a recent track record of lackluster play from Stephenson. The juice just doesn’t seem worth the squeeze.