NBA Trade Grades: Nuggets Send Ty Lawson To Rockets

The Denver Nuggets needed to trade Ty Lawson. Everyone knew it before Lawson’s second DUI arrest in six months, and everyone especially knew it afterward.

Even with Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly coming out and declaring the organization’s support for their troubled point guard, reports quickly surfaced that a few teams were interested in trading for Lawson.

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The Houston Rockets were one team mentioned in those reports, and Sunday evening, ESPN’s Marc Stein reported that they were in advanced trade talks with the Nuggets. Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news and details of the completed deal not long after that:

The headliner of the trade is obviously Ty Lawson, but what are we to make of the deal on both sides? In order to gain some sense of what just happened out in the wild, wild West, here are some NBA Trade Grades.

Houston Rockets:

The Rockets got the best player in this deal, by far, which is always a good thing when assessing the value of a trade. It’s been no secret that general manager Daryl Morey has been trying to upgrade the point guard position for awhile now, and Lawson is certainly an offensive upgrade over Patrick Beverley.

Lawson is one of the quickest players in the league with the ball in his hands, and he could be the perfect fit for Houston’s offensive system. On a team that values three-point shooting and layups above everything else, Lawson’s dribble penetration will open up the floor for the Rockets’ perimeter shooters and bigs rolling to the rim.

Though he only shot 34 percent from three-point range last season, Lawson is a career 37 percent shooter from downtown and his playmaking ability more than makes up for his recent shooting woes. For all his off-court troubles last season, Lawson still averaged 9.6 assists per game — the third most in the NBA. He’s also increased his assists per game every year since he first entered the league in 2009.

In the pick-and-roll, Lawson should be able to thrive without the pressure of being “the guy” like he often was in Denver. The Rockets have the talent and the shooters around him to take full advantage of his skills as a facilitator.

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The fact that the Rockets nabbed a player who nearly averaged a double-double last season and only had to give up Kostas Papanikolaou and spare parts makes this deal a virtual home run. Seriously, the only player the Rockets sent away that was part of the team’s playoff rotation last season was the 38-year-old Pablo Prigioni.

But the deal isn’t 100 percent perfect either. With Lawson entering a rehab facility for 30 days, it’s pretty clear that he has personal demons to deal with first.

If he can get his life in order and focus on basketball, the Rockets might have scored the perfect complementary guard for their team. But if he can’t, Houston will have a major locker room distraction to deal with in the middle of a brutal and unforgiving Western Conference arms race. The margin for error is unbelievably slim.

However, the good news is that the Rockets had to give up virtually nothing in terms of on-court talent. They did, however, surrender a lottery-protected 2016 first round pick in the process. That pick won’t be too valuable if the Rockets are able to duplicate last season’s success, but giving up a first rounder of any kind for Lawson seems like overkill considering his depreciated trade value.

Above all, the elephant in the room must be addressed. Lawson still has to sort through his personal issues before we can truly understand how he’ll fit on the court with the Rockets, and getting his mind right is priority No. 1.

As much as Lawson feels like a perfect fit on paper, everyone said something similar about Rajon Rondo joining the Dallas Mavericks, and we all know how that turned out. Lawson’s personality won’t antagonize teammates or coaches in quite the same way, and unlike Rondo, he’s got a serviceable jump shot, so this is a very different situation.

But after watching James Harden excel as a playmaker with the ball in his hands last season, adding another ball-dominant guard to the backcourt will obviously change things. The arrival of Lawson should ease Harden’s workload and make life easier for him in theory, but we won’t know for sure until we see the tandem in action.

Even if Lawson fails as a starter, however, the Rockets could even consider bringing him off the bench in a sixth man role. And if he’s a complete bust, Houston should be able to move on from him if he crashes and burns again. At the very least, they didn’t have to give up much to bring him on board.

With the defending champion Golden State Warriors, revamped San Antonio Spurs and healthy Oklahoma City Thunder to worry about, this was a gamble the Rockets had to make to remain relevant near the top of the Western Conference ladder.

Grade: A-

Denver Nuggets:

Ty Lawson and the Nuggets were a bad marriage in need of an annulment. This deal accomplished that permanent separation, and considering how low Lawson’s trade value had fallen over the last few weeks, it’s amazing Denver was able to get any trade complete, let alone one that netted them such a decent return.

TNT’s David Aldridge reported that Denver will waive Prigioni, which makes sense with rookie Emmanuel Mudiay and veteran Jameer Nelson on board for the long-term. Even though the Nuggets didn’t get a single starter in return, they bolstered their bench with a few players that can contribute aside from the obvious benefit of handing Mudiay the keys.

Papanikolaou is a smart player who can move the ball well and has the potential to develop into a solid stretch-4 if he can improve his three-point shot. Last season he shot 29.2 percent from downtown on 2.5 attempts per game, but he’s only 24 years old and still has plenty of room to grow.

Joey Dorsey is slightly undersized for the center position at 6’9″, but he’s a physical player who doesn’t mind a little contact and can help on the boards. Nick Johnson probably won’t ever be a star, but he’s only 22 years old, he’s pretty athletic, he can play both guard positions and he’s a committed defender.

Nabbing a future first rounder made this a pretty sizable haul for a player who was just arrested on suspicion of drinking and driving a few days ago. The desire for a name like Donatas Motiejunas or Terrence Jones to be included in the deal is understandable, but that probably wasn’t realistic with Lawson’s trade value being as low as it was.

Still, the biggest thing gained from the Lawson deal is being able to fully turn over the franchise to rookie Emmanuel Mudiay, who will undoubtedly be named the starter from Day 1 and won’t have to worry about a potentially negative influence. Jameer Nelson should be a good mentor for Mudiay and now the rebuilding process can truly begin.

This trade makes Denver a worse basketball team for 2015-16, even if the Nuggets work out a contract extension for Danilo Gallinari as they should. But trading Lawson was necessary for this team to move forward and with a potential superstar like Mudiay waiting in the wings, Connelly accomplished his biggest task of the summer — and got a pretty decent return out of it.

Grade: B-

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