<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Houston Rockets, Ty Lawson exploring contract buyout. <a href="https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA">@WojVerticalNBA</a> story: <a href="https://t.co/0AyWjJcveU">https://t.co/0AyWjJcveU</a></p>— The Vertical (@TheVertical) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheVertical/status/703273346625052672">February 26, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Sources: Rockets, Ty Lawson exploring buyout Adrian Wojnarowski The Houston Rockets and guard Ty Lawson are exploring a contract buyout, league sources told The Vertical. After an initial unwillingness to part with Lawson post-NBA trade deadline, the Rockets could use the savings on a possible buyout to clear salary-cap space to acquire other players becoming available through buyouts, league sources said. Houston discussed trade-deadline deals on Lawson, but was unable to find a suitable trade. Lawson is still owed $3.2 million on his 2015-16 contract, having already been paid $9.2 million. The Rockets are $524,000 under the hard salary cap. For Lawson, the experiment of co-existing with All-Star guard James Harden hasn’t worked this season. Lawson has carried himself as a professional throughout a difficult season, but simply has been unable to thrive with Harden, who is a ball-dominant scoring guard. Lawson, 28, will likely be attractive to playoff teams searching for guard depth or those out of the postseason race that want to give Lawson the chance at a test run for the future. Lawson will need to agree to a buyout and be waived by Tuesday in order to be added to a team’s postseason roster. Lawson has averaged six points and 3.5 assists in 22.8 minutes a game for the Rockets. In his seven-year career, Lawson has averaged 13.3 points and 6.3 assists. The Rockets made a trade with Denver to acquire Lawson in July.
Ty Lawson and Possible Buyout @WojVerticalNBA: RT @TheVertical: Houston Rockets, Ty Lawson exploring contract buyout. @WojVerticalNBA story: https://t.co/0AyWjJcveU/s/aMnN
So this is just to avoid lux tax? Didn't Bima say because his next year is non-guaranteed, his contract is a very good trade chip for a draft day trade?
so now we go under the lt line, right? why lawson decline so so much will always be a curious case of bball...
I think it's to try and clear space to be able to sign someone for the rest of this season? I could be wrong on that though.
Yes! Get rid of him now. Put him on the all worthless Rockets team with quitten, shandon anderson, brad miller, mark jackson, and david anderson.
Doubtful. I think Thornton would be cut for that. Hell, Jones is a better cut than Lawson at this point. His contract could've been very helpful... This is all about saving Leslie money and ending the failed Lawson experiment in the mean time. Les has paid the luxury tax once in the Harden era. Jones would be my first cut at this point. No way i'm offering him the QO.
I'm having problems figuring out why Lawson would accept less this year, if he's going to lose the non-guaranteed year coming. Only thing I can figure is the Rockets are negotiating using some of the non-guaranteed year to prorate his current salary across two years, merely to get below the Lux tax. But the prorated portion would be a cap hit next year, right. So, if I understand this correctly, instead of all this year causing a Lux Tax hit, Rockets want to spread it across two year at the expense of it being a longer cap hit. That would be a pure lux tax play versus using his expiring on Draft Day. Possibly, Lawson and his agents want to switch to a playoff team and will give up both next year guaranteed and less this year, just so he can showcase himself for free agency????
Sucks because although terrible, as soon as he is bought out injuries will likely strike. Ugh Just bury him on the bench, what's the point of buying him out? Just to save $?
