All I know is D12 having back to back MONSTER GAMES early in the season and he's not even 100% in game shape yet and the one common denominator appears to be Lawson. I think by the time this year is over we may have enough data to crunch comparing this year with the "Lawson Effect" versus last year without him but so far so good in my opinion...teams gonna have to pick their poison soon...Howard, Harden and soon Lawson
Oh and we would've LOST against the Clippers without Lawson on this team in my opinion..this is the kind of game we would've lost last year with Beverly and Jones out of the lineup along with DMO
He had a bad game tonight, but I thought he did fine the last two games. Although tonight I was yelling at the TV for him to handle the ball in the final minutes when their entire team was focused on Harden. We were just standing around waiting for Harden to get position and double teamed when Lawson could have been attacking the basket and catching the defense off guard. He did that perfectly against the Thunder a few times, he needs to keep doing it and be aggressive. I think in time he will get more comfortable and hopefully that will happen.
I disagree, our offense fell apart trying to force it to Harden in the last five minutes, we had like one field goal in that entire time. Ty should have been more aggressive in the last few minutes as the Clippers were occupied with Harden. That's why we brought him here, not just to handle the ball when Harden is on the bench. He'll get the hang of it in time.
He played well against the Thunder and the Magic, but has regressed since then. Why is he losing confidence? We can't afford him to have bad games. It's ok to let Harden start as a ball handler sometimes, but Lawson needs to the main ball handler/passer on most occasions.
Fols here must miss these days of Beverly starting in our lineup driving into the paint missing "just enough" layups to loose games Now Beverly comes off the bench which plays to his strength and the miss layups don't hurt as much playing strong D
He needs to be more aggressive. On those plays where Harden is double teamed out near half court, Lawson should be making them pay when he gets the ball with all of that open space. I'm not worried yet, as he gets more comfortable he will start to realize how best to get his. He didn't forget how to make plays in one off season, he's just being passive right now.
Agreed 100%. He's shown some flashes this season already, it's just a matter of him being more comfortable. I'll be worried if it's still like this halfway through the season.
We didn't just need another ball handler. Prigioni was a good ball handler. We needed another capable PLAYMAKER, and not just when Harden sat. The problem was not just Harden playing too many minutes. It's when he played, he had to shoulder the whole offense, which made him exhausted. The whole idea of needing another play maker playing alongside Harden is so that the defense can't zero in on Harden. Look at our offense right now. It's still Harden alone. Lawson is not punishing the opponent when they double on Harden like what the Clippers did in the last 5 minutes.
One thing stands out...Lawson can actually finish a layup driving in the paint. Huge difference from last year at this position. We didn't have this luxury last year. Our PG's laid bricks in the paint and we lost close games as a result. Just one example of the impact Lawson is making in subtle ways even when he's not in "attack mode" yet
I think we would all be fine if thorton just upped his play when he is in there without harden . But he hasn't yet . Thorton and terry do a better job of creating for others than Lawson has these last two games .
I agree with you. Lawson is here to be a playmaker in spells. But I see what Lars is saying too and I'm with him; harden should be our primary playmaker. Beard should be running the show here. Instead of running 90% of our offense, Lawson should allow harden to run maybe 70% of it.
Everyone should keep in mind that Lawson has yet to figure out his role and Harden has yet to figure out how to maximize his game through Lawson. Its going to take time. Every time I see Harden playing iso dribbling the air out of the ball with Lawson standing in the corner with his hands at his side, it makes me want to see Lawson off of the bench. Give the starting lineup the additional Defensive punch with Bev and allow Lawson to come off the bench with Brew and DMo/Jones. You'll have a play maker on the curt at all times, but are maximizing player abilities.
Suggested guidance: Give McHale as much time to integrate Lawson as it took to integrate Josh Smith last year. That didn't go smoovely at the outset either. But McHale and the coaching staff soon figured it out. There will be some failed experiments along the way.
I'm just wondering about his shooting %%s...how can they drop off so significantly from where they used to be?
Lawson is a terrible defender, if he is not playing well on offense, which he isnt currently right now, the Rox will be better off to give more playing time to Terry, and this says a lots about the disappointment on Lawson so far.
Totally agree here, it would keep the offense flowing and this was missing last season obviously. It was nice though to see that the Clippers struggling to stop us.
