In the Spotlight: Ty Lawson

Ty Lawson
Position: Point Guard
Ht: 5-11, Wt: 195
Hometown: Clinton, Md.
College: UNC
Class: Junior
DOB: 11/3/87

Strengths:

• Great Floor General – Pass first point guard that shows good leadership skills.
• Winner… He’s consistently won in both HS and College (Granted he’s had superb talent around him.)
• Unselfish, keeps everyone involved in the offense.
• Pushes the tempo… Excels in transition playing a fast paced, open court game.
• Good court vision – sees the floor well
• With his combination of speed and ball-handling, he makes it very tough for opposing teams to apply full-court pressure.
• Extremely fast end to end
• Solid upper body strength
• Pesky on the ball defender that does a good job pressuring the opposing point guard the full length of the court.
• Quick hands that enable him to create turnovers – averaging 2.3 SPG
  

Weaknesses:

• Size - Listed at 5’11, his lack of height and wingspan will create a challenge for Lawson at the next level.
• Doesn’t have a true mid-range game -- Relies heavily on getting to the basket in transition, or taking 3’s.
• Lawson gets limited elevation on his jump shot.
• Not a great shooter (although much improved) – he lacks consistency from the perimeter to keep the defense honest. For his size, Lawson needs to be a terrific shooter and he isn’t.
• Needs to become more effective playing in the half-court set.
• Defensively, he struggles fighting over screens and he has a tendency to just go under picks, giving the opposition too much separation.
• Lawson needs to increase his level of effort defensively.
• Gambles too much on the defensive end.

Overall:
Ty Lawson is a great college point guard on a great college team. Not to take away from Lawson’s abilities, but it’s much easier to look good when you’re surrounded by tremendous talent and you’re blowing out your opponents. With that said, you have to like that he’s consistently produced winning results throughout his entire career.

Lawson’s speed in the open court and his ability to create transition opportunities for his team are outstanding. He sees the floor well, plays an unselfish style and he gets his teammates the ball in position to score.

Lawson is a pretty good athlete that’s capable of elevating, but he shoots more of a set shot and doesn’t take advantage of his ability to get up. At 5’11 and with a low release point, Lawson is going to face challenges getting his shot off at the next level.

With that said, I’m not as worried about Lawson’s mechanics as I am with his consistency. He’s shown terrific improvement over the past 2 seasons, which his %’s clearly reflect, but he’s still not at the level he needs to be, as a shooter. Until he becomes a more potent outside shooter, defenses in the NBA will be able to sag back and go under screens, which will take away Lawson’s effectiveness.

Defensively, Lawson is at a disadvantage with his height and length, right off the bat. He needs to exert more energy on the defensive end and do a better job of shutting down penetration. In addition, learning to fight over screens will be crucial to his development, because if he allows the opposition to get that much space in the NBA, opposing guards will destroy him from the outside.
At the next level, Lawson has the ability to become a serviceable backup point guard and a guy that brings energy off the bench.