Houston Rockets: Grading The Offseason

The Lawson Trade

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 Ty Lawson is certainly an offensive upgrade over Patrick Beverley.

As one of the quickest players in the league with the ball in his hands, Lawson 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 (Pablo Prigioni, Joey Dorsey and Nick Johnson) 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 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 Warriors, revamped Spurs and healthy 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-

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