As with pretty much anything that hits the Internet, even if it’s deleted, it doesn’t mean it’s gone.

Ty Lawson knows that.

His last basketball-related words as a Nuggets player could be a simple, fateful phrase.

“I wish.”

Last week on Instagram he was asked by a Dallas Mavericks fan to come play for Dallas. His reply: “I wish.”

Lawson soon after deleted the post, but the damage was done, the contents already burned into the heads of Nuggets fans.

And, most important — or unfortunate, depending on your point of view in this one — it was burned into the organization’s head.

Once considered an untouchable on the Nuggets’ roster, the point guard’s actions over the past two years have done everything to remove himself from that space. His new reality? He’s as susceptible to the next good trade offer as any other tradeable player in the NBA.

If Lawson wants to remain with the Nuggets, he has an uphill battle to convince the organization there are enough good reasons to put him back on the untouchable list. And there isn’t enough time to completely turn the tide by one of the biggest wheeling-and-dealing times of the year, the June draft.

So, he will have to sweat that out.

During the latter stages of the regular season, word circulated throughout the league that Lawson wanted out of Denver.

While that does not appear to be the case right now, it was clear that former Nuggets coach Brian Shaw and Lawson did not get along, and that left Shaw in position time and again to try to explain why he couldn’t get Lawson to be more aggressive.

The answer, of course, was Lawson wasn’t going to play hard 100 percent of the time for a coach he didn’t like.

The roots of all of this were planted in training camp in 2013, when basketball started getting harder and, by extension, less fun for Lawson. Hard sprinting to the rim had been replaced by Shaw’s demand that Lawson be a half-court point guard — running a team instead of just running the floor.

And then there was the losing.

The losing the past two seasons grated on Lawson. And that grating, combined with his disdain for Shaw, didn’t cause Lawson to double down on his efforts on the court so much as it pushed him away. His time away from the court became more important to him.

And when that happened, so did these things:

• He missed a team breakfast meeting in the 2013-14 season and was held out of the starting lineup that night.

• He missed the first post-All-Star Game practice this year when he was unable to make it back from the longest break in NBA history because he was relaxing in Las Vegas.

• He was arrested on suspicion of DUI.

• He missed a shootaround late this season, which was dismissed at the time as an “illness.”

• He played his part on a team that stopped playing hard for Shaw, leading to Shaw’s firing, and then, months later, tried his best to twist the knife and embarrass Shaw by posting a video of the former Nuggets coach rapping a pregame speech.

Lawson did not feel the need to delete that.

These actions have not endeared himself to an organization that can now, more than ever, be persuaded to trade him if the right offer is made. His “I wish” Instagram put many Nuggets fans into the category of moving on from him as well. He has done all of this to himself.

And that may be the hardest thing to delete of all.

Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dempseypost

Top NBA Early Draft Candidates for 2015

The NBA announced its early-entry draft candidates last week, a list to which the Nuggets were paying close attention, because they hold a top-10 pick. The draft lottery this month will provide additional clarity about which top prospects go to which teams. Here are Denver Post NBA writer Christopher Dempsey’s top-10 players, in order:

1. Karl-Anthony Towns, C, 6-foot-11, 250 pounds: The Kentucky star’s package of size, skill and upside pushes him to the top. Proven on defense, his burgeoning offensive game makes him the kind of player a team can build around.

2. Jahlil Okafor, C, 6-11, 275: Entered the college basketball season as the consensus best player, and he didn’t disappoint for Duke. He is by far the best low-post offensive player, but he needs work defensively.

3. Emmanuel Mudiay, PG, 6-5, 196: The buzz skews more toward D’Angelo Russell here, but I still like size at point guard, the skill to run an NBA offense right now, and the explosiveness to the rim this Congolese brings.

4. D’Angelo Russell, PG, 6-5, 176: The Ohio State freshman was a big-time scorer. Russell gives off that “star” vibe as a perimeter player.

5. Justise Winslow, SF, 6-6, 222: A stellar NCAA Tournament helping Duke win it all dramatically raised his profile. Can score, rebound and defend.

6. Mario Hezonja, SG-SF, 6-7, 200: As video of this guy starts to circulate, his stock will rise. Many NBA GMs have been to Spain to see him play. Hezonja, originally from Croatia, is as athletic a player as there is in this draft.

7. Kristaps Porzingis, C, 6-11, 220: Some see a star in this Latvian. He will be a center who can shoot it from 3-point range in the NBA.

8. Willie Cauley-Stein, C, 7-0, 240: The best overall defensive player in the draft, the Kentucky stalwart can impact a team immediately at that end. Offensively, he is raw.

9. Stanley Johnson, SF, 6-7, 240: His stock dropped a bit as the season went on, but the Arizona star can still prove he’s every bit as good as Winslow — in a bigger, stronger package.

10. (tie) Myles Turner, PF, 7-0, 240: Yes, you read that right: a 7-foot power forward. The Texas Longhorn can shoot out to 3-point range, handle the ball and score in the post.

10. (tie) Frank Kaminsky, C, 7-0, 234: A proven scorer from the post to the perimeter. Can the Wisconsin star do it against NBA size and athleticism?