Ty Lawson

#91
What's up with all the hate on Ty? One dui and 2 bad stints doesn't mean bad character. The nuggets were going downhill during the end of his tenure there, the rockets were as much of a circus as we were last year, and he didn't fit with the pacers. Cut him some slack
I think if the critics would simply admit...

1. Lack of options, extreme need
2. Authentic real potential from a guy who isn't getting over an Achilles injury or something like that.
3. Cheap 1 year contract

Then there would be less the sky is falling phenomena around here.
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
#92
What's up with all the hate on Ty? One dui and 2 bad stints doesn't mean bad character. The nuggets were going downhill during the end of his tenure there, the rockets were as much of a circus as we were last year, and he didn't fit with the pacers. Cut him some slack
One DUI? More like four. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Lawson
1. Underage DUI in 2008, Chapel Hill
2. DUI January 23 2015, Denver
3. DUI July 14 2015, Los Angeles
4. DUI unknown date, Missouri (admitted to Missouri DUI arrest during Denver arrest, but Missouri arrest is not on Wiki page)

On top of that you've got a reckless driving in a separate incident, AND a later arrest for "avoiding prosecution" on that incident. And a dropped misdemeanor domestic violence charge. And that video he took of himself toking up on YouTube.

So we're supposed to "cut him some slack" despite the fact that he's been terrible at both of his last two stops and he's continually in trouble with the law? If he were a superstar and we were putting together a character-doesn't-matter Jailblazers team, then I can understand. But weren't we supposed to be bringing in high-character guys? Does Lawson, as a backup PG, offer anywhere near enough on the court to make up for his negatives off the court?

I think if the critics would simply admit...

1. Lack of options, extreme need
2. Authentic real potential from a guy who isn't getting over an Achilles injury or something like that.
3. Cheap 1 year contract

Then there would be less the sky is falling phenomena around here.
I will stipulate #3. On #1 I would suggest that "paucity" would be a better word than "lack" (for instance, why not Norris Cole?) but would otherwise agree. On #2 I would disagree with the first three words - I'm not terribly high on Lawson's on-court potential at this point.

Is the sky falling? No. But from a character standpoint he might have been the worst choice we could have made, right up in the running with Lance Stephenson. I don't have to be happy about this signing. Apparently you are. That's fine. Still, I don't see why you need to belittle the Lawson critics for critiquing the actual documented baggage that Lawson carries around with him. Maybe there are still people around here who would prefer "knows how to call a taxi" to "proven veteran".
 

funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
#93
I stand by my earlier comment of "meh".

At best, Lawson is a still young PG who can score in bunches, who can boost second unit scoring, attack the basket in transition, be decent as a spot up shooter or in the half court and be very good running the pick and roll.

But there's the issue of his four DUIs and domestic abuse charge coupled with the fact that he really looked pretty awful last season.

We'll see. At best he's a good off the bench scoring PG but Temple will likely still have to have the responsibility of guarding bigger, elite PGs.
 
#95
since all of the potential trades seem to have disappeared, all that left us was Lance,Cole,Chalmers etc.
If there is going to be a 10 game suspension for DC
I would take a Ty-Temple for 10 games over any of the above
and a DC/Ty rotation might give us offense off the Bench
We have a bunch of defensive players to cover for DC and Ty
Considering we still have our no 2 scorer (Rudy) and DC or Ty as no 3
I think we could be better on Offense and defense this year

Go Kings !!!!!!!
 
#96
One DUI? More like four. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Lawson
1. Underage DUI in 2008, Chapel Hill
2. DUI January 23 2015, Denver
3. DUI July 14 2015, Los Angeles
4. DUI unknown date, Missouri (admitted to Missouri DUI arrest during Denver arrest, but Missouri arrest is not on Wiki page)

On top of that you've got a reckless driving in a separate incident, AND a later arrest for "avoiding prosecution" on that incident. And a dropped misdemeanor domestic violence charge. And that video he took of himself toking up on YouTube.

So we're supposed to "cut him some slack" despite the fact that he's been terrible at both of his last two stops and he's continually in trouble with the law? If he were a superstar and we were putting together a character-doesn't-matter Jailblazers team, then I can understand. But weren't we supposed to be bringing in high-character guys? Does Lawson, as a backup PG, offer anywhere near enough on the court to make up for his negatives off the court?



I will stipulate #3. On #1 I would suggest that "paucity" would be a better word than "lack" (for instance, why not Norris Cole?) but would otherwise agree. On #2 I would disagree with the first three words - I'm not terribly high on Lawson's on-court potential at this point.

Is the sky falling? No. But from a character standpoint he might have been the worst choice we could have made, right up in the running with Lance Stephenson. I don't have to be happy about this signing. Apparently you are. That's fine. Still, I don't see why you need to belittle the Lawson critics for critiquing the actual documented baggage that Lawson carries around with him. Maybe there are still people around here who would prefer "knows how to call a taxi" to "proven veteran".
Belittle is an interesting verbage, also enough time has passed in FA where I'm pretty sure most options Vlade was considering were exhausted.

Is there a physical impairment with Lawson you are aware of?

Do you see as a productive recent career history with anyone else left on the market who would take little money?

Do grown men need a babysitter?

There is no candidate anywhere near his potential left on the market.

The risk is minimal, a guy like Cole is the real "meh" that funky just mentioned above.

The odds are good enough to take a chance here.
 
#97
Wanted Lawson here for awhile now.

A lot of people were the same about Rondo. Some people will argue if he was a success or not, personally I think he was a success here (moreso than fans thought before he got here).

Another aspect is that if Lawson ****s up again, his NBA chances anywhere are gone. A 1 year show me contract isn't very risky in my eyes considering what else was out there. Next year the Kings can focus on PG via draft or maybe FA if the team shows some life this season.
 
#98
The thing with Free Agents is they are Free:) They can sign where they want to. So you cannot look at every other Free Agent PG and say, "oh we could of had him!"

It is not just about the money.

I am thinking Vlade is not done and would not be surprised if a trade happens now that a PG is not a have to have priority.
 
#99
Let's look at this way:

With all the rumors and staff we had that were lusting for him (PDA, Karl), I'm positive that we were a hairs-breadth away multiple times from having to pay Lawson (and his baggage) to be here with that overpaid contract he had. We would have been paying him $13.2 mil guaranteed to play here!
Be thankful we only have to pay him $1 mill low money for one year...
 
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Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
Belittle is an interesting verbage
Perhaps. You seemed to insist that critics concede your three points and then cease being critical as if they had no right to critique. That felt to me like "I have a right to my opinion but you don't have a right to yours" - which in turn feels belittling to me. But yeah, I didn't really know how to put it concisely.

Do grown men need a babysitter?
Generally, no. Available evidence suggests that Lawson might fare better with one, however.
 
The thing with Free Agents is they are Free:) They can sign where they want to. So you cannot look at every other Free Agent PG and say, "oh we could of had him!"

It is not just about the money.

I am thinking Vlade is not done and would not be surprised if a trade happens now that a PG is not a have to have priority.
The money due Lawson is probably such that even if he is ONLY there to provide us leverage in negotiations for trades - it could be worth it. If Miami or OKC or PHX thinks they can steal Gay because we are "desperate" for guard help ... Well now we aren't. So get serious, you lowballin trade partners!

The perception that we had desperate need for pg depth couldn't have been helping us
 
Let's look at this way:

With all the rumors and staff we had that were lusting for him (PDA, Karl), I'm positive that we were a hairs-breadth away multiple times from having to pay Lawson (and his baggage) to be here with that overpaid contract he had. We would have been paying him $13.2 mil guaranteed to play here!
Be thankful we only have to pay him $1 mill for one year...
Have we had info that its a 1 Mil min contract? or did we use our 2.8 mil room exception
Either way I am ok with it if only 1 yr
 
Lawson has been a bad citizen and a bad basketball player for a few years now and I have a lot of doubts about this signing. Having said that he is a King now so I'll give him a chance to prove me wrong and hope really hard that he does so.
 
K

KingsFan80

Guest
oh I see...so a guy that averaged 5.8 points in 53 games with Houston and 4.9 points in 13 games with Indiana will all of a sudden come in and put the ball in the basket? Ty has played disinterested since leaving Denver, even then...I questioned how much he wants to play sometimes, either way...he won't be here after this season so it's something to talk about until next off season
We put ourselves in this position by signing Affalo, Tolliver and Temple. Those guys don't score ---maybe Affalo in a good year but the other two no. At some point you need points and since there is nobody left who can score we are forced to take a risk on Lawson, who at one point in his career was a scorer. Cousins and Rudy Gay cannot score all of our points every game, especially when Collison is out. I think more so you have to think nobody wanted Rudy Gay, or at least for what we were asking which is another reason we signed Lawson.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
I stand by my earlier comment of "meh".

At best, Lawson is a still young PG who can score in bunches, who can boost second unit scoring, attack the basket in transition, be decent as a spot up shooter or in the half court and be very good running the pick and roll.

But there's the issue of his four DUIs and domestic abuse charge coupled with the fact that he really looked pretty awful last season.

We'll see. At best he's a good off the bench scoring PG but Temple will likely still have to have the responsibility of guarding bigger, elite PGs.
Oh, I mean this was a guy talked about as a borderline All Star guy only a couple of years ago. And he's not physically ruined.

I'm not holding my breath -- indeed this could be like when we gave Aaron Brooks a chance to return to the NBA from China after he had been a former star/guy in decline. But nonetheless, the "at best" for a guy like Lawson is the Rondo situation, where the guy bounces back to significant starter level play. I happen to think he's walking around with a giant L on his forehead, but I doubt the talent evaporated so fast.
 
We needed a PG solution and of course the pickings are slim. I don't love it or hate it. Nothing miraculous was going to happen before basketball is played on the court this season, if at all.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Just for the absolute best case scenario, here are the two years ago numbers BTW. Not 5 years or something unreasonable, but just saying, ok, last year we were a mess under Karl, and Lawson went on a year-long pub crawl, which he now has of course gotten entirely out of his season. So as recently as 16 months ago our core "talents":

#1 -- Cousins 34.1min 24.1pts (.545TS%) 12.7reb 3.6ast 1.5stl 1.7blk 4.3TO 25.2PER
#2 -- RudGay 35.4min 21.1pts (.556TS%) 5.9reb 3.7ast 1.0stl 0.6blk 2.7TO 19.7PER
#3 -- Lawson 35.5min 15.2pts (.526TS%) 3.1reb 9.6ast 1.2stl 0.1blk 2.5TO 18.5PER
6th -- Collison 34.8min 16.1pts (.575TS%) 3.2reb 5.6ast 1.5stl 0.3blk 2.5TO 17.5PER

Now obviously without George Karl that can't happen because Collison nand Lawson can't share a backcourt for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Nonetheless that would be PLENTY of firepower to stick atop a stack of support and roleplayers.
 

funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
Here's the thing about Lawson though.

It's a one year deal.

If he's awful then the Kings likely still have to patch the position this season and Lawson doesn't return.

If he has a major rebound year then he's likely gone as he'll seek greener pastures.

If he has a mild rebound then the Kings will be stuck trying to figure out if they overpay To bring him back and simultaneously try to figure out whether to bring back Collison.

If both have solid to great seasons it would take a chunk of change to bring back two PGs who aren't great compliments to one another because their games and physical tools (and defenciencies) are pretty similar.

It could be a decent patch job for this season but next year Gay is likely opting out and both PGs will be FAs. The Kings aren't in a great position long term.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
Here's the thing about Lawson though.

It's a one year deal.

If he's awful then the Kings likely still have to patch the position this season and Lawson doesn't return.

If he has a major rebound year then he's likely gone as he'll seek greener pastures.

If he has a mild rebound then the Kings will be stuck trying to figure out if they overpay To bring him back and simultaneously try to figure out whether to bring back Collison.

If both have solid to great seasons it would take a chunk of change to bring back two PGs who aren't great compliments to one another because their games and physical tools (and defenciencies) are pretty similar.

It could be a decent patch job for this season but next year Gay is likely opting out and both PGs will be FAs. The Kings aren't in a great position long term.
This sounds eerily similar to what was said two or three seasons ago...that's just the boat the Kings are in and going to be until Vlade has some time to work with what he was given.
 
K

KingsFan80

Guest
I think it is a great signing...low risk high reward. Probably the second best signing of the off-season

1) Affalo --Starting SG
2) Lawson - Will start PG some when Collison is out and play valuable minutes as backup
3) Barnes - Plays hard. Can backup Gay
4) Temple - Can play PG or SG
5) Tolliver - minimal impact
 
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Here's the thing about Lawson though.

It's a one year deal.

If he's awful then the Kings likely still have to patch the position this season and Lawson doesn't return.

If he has a major rebound year then he's likely gone as he'll seek greener pastures.

If he has a mild rebound then the Kings will be stuck trying to figure out if they overpay To bring him back and simultaneously try to figure out whether to bring back Collison.

If both have solid to great seasons it would take a chunk of change to bring back two PGs who aren't great compliments to one another because their games and physical tools (and defenciencies) are pretty similar.

It could be a decent patch job for this season but next year Gay is likely opting out and both PGs will be FAs. The Kings aren't in a great position long term.
But again none of the other PG options (lance,Cole, etc ) were worth multi year contracts anyway
So I see Ty as the best one year option pick one of the two DC or Ty depending on how they both do
and make an offer in FA or get a big $ FA and give a low offer to them both
 
Just for the absolute best case scenario, here are the two years ago numbers BTW. Not 5 years or something unreasonable, but just saying, ok, last year we were a mess under Karl, and Lawson went on a year-long pub crawl, which he now has of course gotten entirely out of his season. So as recently as 16 months ago our core "talents":

#1 -- Cousins 34.1min 24.1pts (.545TS%) 12.7reb 3.6ast 1.5stl 1.7blk 4.3TO 25.2PER
#2 -- RudGay 35.4min 21.1pts (.556TS%) 5.9reb 3.7ast 1.0stl 0.6blk 2.7TO 19.7PER
#3 -- Lawson 35.5min 15.2pts (.526TS%) 3.1reb 9.6ast 1.2stl 0.1blk 2.5TO 18.5PER
6th -- Collison 34.8min 16.1pts (.575TS%) 3.2reb 5.6ast 1.5stl 0.3blk 2.5TO 17.5PER

Now obviously without George Karl that can't happen because Collison nand Lawson can't share a backcourt for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Nonetheless that would be PLENTY of firepower to stick atop a stack of support and roleplayers.
Once Collison is back as the full time starter Lawson could turn into a pretty powerful sixth man if he has his game back. This could be a little reminiscent of the old Bibby/Bobby magic from days gone by. I am rooting for Lawson but riding the wagon can be a bumpy ride.
 
Here's the thing about Lawson though.

It's a one year deal.

If he's awful then the Kings likely still have to patch the position this season and Lawson doesn't return.

If he has a major rebound year then he's likely gone as he'll seek greener pastures.

If he has a mild rebound then the Kings will be stuck trying to figure out if they overpay To bring him back and simultaneously try to figure out whether to bring back Collison.

If both have solid to great seasons it would take a chunk of change to bring back two PGs who aren't great compliments to one another because their games and physical tools (and defenciencies) are pretty similar.

It could be a decent patch job for this season but next year Gay is likely opting out and both PGs will be FAs. The Kings aren't in a great position long term.
True but at least we are not financially handicapped, so you've got to trust the FO at that point assuming Lawson does well enough to consider later, as well as Collison. That's still much better than Landryesque handcuffs.
 
I think it is a great signing...low risk high reward. Probably the second best signing of the off-season

1) Affalo --Starting SG
2) Lawson - Will start PG some when Collison is out and play valuable minutes as backup
3) Barnes - Plays hard. Can backup Gay
4) Temple - Can play PG or SG
4) Tolliver - minimal impact
Tolliver can hit the 3. That's valuable potentially game to game, situation by situation, depending on need and opponent. I'm glad we have that option around. Even with Omri capable of some of that.
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
The money due Lawson is probably such that even if he is ONLY there to provide us leverage in negotiations for trades - it could be worth it. If Miami or OKC or PHX thinks they can steal Gay because we are "desperate" for guard help ... Well now we aren't. So get serious, you lowballin trade partners!

The perception that we had desperate need for pg depth couldn't have been helping us
That is a great point you bring up. I think that as far as contracts and trades go, Vlade has been very fiscally responsible while getting in guys who can help. No 4 year, $15 mill per deals given to guys who aren't that good. There has been no Gay trade for less than his value, 1 year make good deals in place, no desperation moves, to me it shows the league where we are at now in dealing with trade matters. Can't help but think that Catalanetta(sp) has helped in the contract areas.

And by the way, like many have mentioned, if Lawson eff's up, he's gone sinc enes on a 1 year deal and we go sign some PG jabroni who doesn't have a job. If Lawson does work out, this could be a very helpful signing. Could make even Collison available at some point feasibly in search of a higher tier guard
 

funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
But again none of the other PG options (lance,Cole, etc ) were worth multi year contracts anyway
So I see Ty as the best one year option pick one of the two DC or Ty depending on how they both do
and make an offer in FA or get a big $ FA and give a low offer to them both
Oh sure, it's definitely true that there weren't any great PG options available at this point but I suppose that's more of an issue of Vlade & co not getting something done earlier in the offseason.

I can't really take issue with the Lawson signing at this point but I wish a PG move had been made that would have addressed the team's future. But if the price to trade up for Dunn was too high and Vlade didn't want Baldwin then it would have had to be a trade as after Conley it was pretty slim pickings in the FA market.
 
This sounds eerily similar to what was said two or three seasons ago...that's just the boat the Kings are in and going to be until Vlade has some time to work with what he was given.
I think we are in a much better position now than we were 2-3 years ago.

For starters, there is some youth on the roster that could develop into good to very good basketball players. Skal is a genuine talent and has NBA skill level but needs to get bigger and stronger. Malachi Richardson has a chance to be a solid pro. There is Bogdanovic waiting in the wings and who knows what happens with Papagiannis. At this moment it doesn't look good but who knows.

Now none of those guys are certainties but at least with WCS, Skal, Richardson etc.. there is some genuinely promising youth. All of those need a lot of work but there is something there to work with. For the first time since Malone's first season as our coach, we actually seem to be focused on player development which is a very nice positive on the back of what was taking place the last 2 seasons.
 
I really am amazed at how Vlade has transformed this team from top to bottom. Now at every level we have guys that are on the same page and focused on winning! The key piece was Joerger in my opinion. That was absolutely the best coach in the NBA for maximizing DMC talent.

Now we are shipping people out and letting people go if they don't follow the program. We want DEFENSE! And we want HARD WORK and COMMITMENT! If guys don't want to get on board with that....then hasta lavista baby....dont let the front door hit ya on your way out!

Now we got Ty Lawson who somehow had all his NBA mojo taken away. I have mild expectations on what to expect from him, but his talent has the potential to make him a core piece on this team. If it goes well you just got a good player for nothing. You have to take that risk. Nobody expects Lawson to come in here and be a bad teammate and cause chemistry issues. The only risk is he plays like he did in Indiana or Houston. That is a risk i'm willing to take.

I have a good feeling about this year!


But I am an optimist and say that every year...so...;)