Point guard Ty Lawson started 307 of the 416 games he played in during his six years with the Denver Nuggets. Lawson was traded to the Houston Rockets this offseason and he might find himself being used in a backup role behind Patrick Beverley, instead of joining the first unit.

“They’ll determine that,” head coach Kevin McHale told the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday. “We’ll find out. Can we play them together? Maybe. We’ll put them out there. We had 28 days of camp. We’ll decide who will get the lion’s share of the minutes. One will and one will be a backup."

McHale later noted: “Ty last year had a very average year in Denver compared to what he had done before. (Former Nuggets coach) George Karl runs a little bit more of an open offense like we run here, get up and down, attack. We want Ty to do what he does best, get in the paint, make plays for others, scoring."

When Karl and the Nuggets parted ways they hired Brian Shaw to be the head coach and he did not mesh with Lawson and that contributed to the reduced production from the point guard.

The Rockets already have plenty of offense within the starting group, which is the reason McHale may stay with Beverley since he is a much better defender than Lawson.