Ty Lawson Is Better Than Your Favorite Point Guard

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When you speak about the Denver Nuggets the first name that pops in your head as it pertains to this current roster is Ty Lawson. This season marked the first year since 2003 that the Nuggets had not qualified for the playoffs as they finished this season 36-46 hit hard by the injury bug. Key players such as Nate Robinson, JaVale McGee and Wilson Chandler all missed significant time this season, couple that with the departure of Andre Iguadola to the Golden State Warriors and it made for some pretty underwhelming results for the Nuggets as a whole. Lost in the mediocrity of the Nuggets this year was another stellar season by Ty Lawson who statistically can stand toe to toe with some of the leagues best guards.

This year Ty was in a situation where the odds were not stacked in his favor to succeed at the highest level. This of course resulted in a career high in turnovers (3.2) and career lows in 3-point field goal percentage (35.6%) along with his overall field goal percentage (43.1%). Is it a regression of Ty or the Nuggets inability to surround him with other play makers? I would venture to say the latter, most good teams in the NBA have other guys in their lineup besides the point guard who can pass. Damian Lillard has Nicholas Batum in Portland to fill the role of point forward which in turn allows Lillard to move off the ball and produce as one of the best perimeter shooters in the game. Ty does not have that luxury and with such a depleted roster it put the onus on him to create for himself and others more than he should have to. The result of that was more contested shots and less clean looks which reflects in his numbers.

Lawson also set a career high this season in minutes per game with an average of 35.8 per game which is slightly higher than his earlier high of 34.8 per game back in 2012. He has pretty much been in the same range as far as minutes per game goes the last 3 seasons but this year he set a career high in assists with 8.8 per game tied for 2nd with John Wall and Kendall Marshall. Only Chris Paul sets up his teammates better than Lawson with 10.7 assists per game. Ty got little to no consideration for the all-star game this past season yet his assist to turnover ratio was higher than a lot of point guards.

How Ty’s Assist To Turnover Ratio Stacks Up With The Rest Of The League

Ty Lawson- 2.72

Stephen Curry- 2.27

Kemba Walker- 2.64

Kyrie Irving- 2.28

Goran Dragic- 2.10

Damian Lillard- 2.37

LeBron James- 1.81

As you can see Ty Lawson even in a down year proves that he can go toe to toe against just about anybody in this league, his assist to turnover ratio is better than 4 All-NBA players in Dragic, Lillard,Curry and LeBron. It’s just about improving the talent around him and once the Nuggets take that step to make his life easier I believe we will see Ty make the jump to an elite point guard in this league. I think the best is yet to come from the former national champion.

Despite being undersized Ty Lawson this year showed the uncanny ability to get to the free throw line as he finished 12th among the whole league in free throws attempted per game at 6.5 per game. The only starting point guard in the entire league getting to the charity stripe more than Lawson is Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook who ranks 9th in the league at 7.3 attempts per game. The Maryland native is showing vast maturity in that area of his game and if he ever becomes a consistent 82-85% shooter from there we will see him make the jump to becoming a 20 points per game scorer which statistically would make him as good as any guard.

Lawson is a 195 pound pit bull with the ability to hang and hit his shots at the rim. He’s a tough competitor who has proven to be a winner before he even got into the league. As good as he is though if I were to go into a barber shop and get into a heated basketball debate about the best point guards in this league and say that Lawson is just as good if not better than John Wall and Damian Lillard people would think I was on drugs, but advance stats paint a realer picture.

Ty Lawson- Usage Percentage: 22.7%, Player Efficiency Rating: 19.0, True Shooting Percentage: 55.4%, Effective Field Goal Percentage: 47.5%

Damian Lillard- Usage Percentage: 25%, Player Efficiency Rating: 18.6, True Shooting Percentage: 56.8%, Effective Field Goal Percentage: 50.8%

John Wall- Usage Percentage: 27.4%, Player Efficiency Rating: 19.5, True Shooting Percentage: 52.5%, Effective Field Goal Percentage: 47.3%

So as we can see Lawson despite a lack of a supporting cast statistically holds his own with not one but two point guards that were all-stars this season. These are some of the anointed ones in our game but take narrative away and we see that #3 on the Denver Nuggets is just as good. Damian Lillard and John Wall are both being used more than Lawson yet their PER’s are in the same neighborhood or below Lawson. PER measure’s by minute production and both played more minutes than Ty so you would think that a more inflated player efficiency rating would be a bi-product of that.

True shooting percentage takes into account 2-point field goals, 3-point field goals and free throws for a more exact measure of good of a shooter someone is from every facet of shooting. Lawson is nearly 3% higher than Wall and less than 2% than Lillard who many regard as one of the leagues best shooters. As I stated earlier Lawson also takes better care of the ball better than those two due to his assist/turnover ratio being higher.

So not only do I think Ty is every bit as good as some of the leagues elites already, I also think that you can win at a high level with him and build a contender around him. He’s only 26 years of age and is just entering the prime of his career, If Denver maximizes his talent within the next few years than the league is in for a world of hurt.