Ty Lawson Reaches Agreement With Pacers

Point guard Ty Lawson has agreed to a deal with the Indiana Pacers, according to Yahoo! Sports.  Lawson was waived by the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.

Lawson, Pacers Agree To Deal

Houston acquired Lawson in a trade with the Denver Nuggets which they sent a 2016 first round NBA Draft pick, Joey Dorsey, Nick Johnson, Pablo Prigioni, Kostas Papanikolaou, and cash considerations in exchange for Lawson and a second round pick in 2017.  With Lawson being waived, none of the players involved in the trade play for the team they were acquired by.

Houston and Lawson never seemed to get their chemistry right, Lawson and shooting guard James Harden are both ball dominant players and they were never able to mesh well.  After Rockets coach Kevin McHale was fired after 11 games, Lawson was removed from the starting rotation by interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff.  Lawson is averaging 5.8 points and 3.4 assists in 22.2 minutes per game.

Lawson was coming off two productive seasons with the Nuggets, averaging 16.4 points and 9.2 assists per game, and was in consideration for being a top-10 point guard in the league; though not on the same tier as elite talents like Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry and Chris Paul.

Despite his production in Denver, Lawson has been arrested multiple times going as far back as his college days at North Carolina.  Four of his arrests are related to driving under the influence and his fifth arrest was about a possible domestic abuse incident, but charges were dropped.

The Pacers (32-29) are hoping the 28 year old Lawson will be able to provide a spell option while they rest George Hill throughout the game.  Indiana is currently in seventh place in the Eastern Conference but have three teams within 1.5 games behind them.  They are 11 games behind division leading Cleveland in the Central Division.  The Pacers is also welcoming back guard Rodney Stuckey, who is returning from an ankle sprain suffered in January.

In order to make room for Lawson, the Pacers will buyout small forward Chase Budinger on Saturday.  Budinger, 27, is averaging 4.5 points, 1 assist, and 2.5 rebounds per game.