Ty Lawson has been in the news a lot recently. Whether it's the trade rumors involving him going to a number of different places, or Chauncey Billups coming out and saying Lawson isn't a good leader, his name has been everywhere. The news on Lawson on Tuesday morning was that he reportedly got busted for DUI in Los Angeles according to TMZ.
This would be the second time this year that Lawson has been arrested for DUI, the first coming in January. Lawson was reportedly speeding down the 101 Freeway early Tuesday morning when he was pulled over and showed some signs of being intoxicated. The police officer then gave him a field sobriety test which he went on to fail, leading to his arrest, according to TMZ, which also reported that Lawson tried to get out of the arrest by proclaiming that he was an NBA player and was carrying $6,000 cash on him at the time.
This is bad news for Lawson and awful news for the Nuggets. The Nuggets had been trying to trade Lawson recently, and his value was pretty high because he is a solid point guard, but with two apparent DUI arrests in a six-month span his value is now at an all-time low. The way the Nuggets roster is constructed, they will be fine at the point guard position with or without Lawson this year, as they signed Jameer Nelson to a deal on Monday and drafted Emmanuel Mudiay with their first pick in the NBA draft.
Lawson is under contract with the Nuggets for the next two years and is owed about $25.5 million over the next two seasons. The Nuggets would love to move on from Lawson, especially after this most recent incident, even if they don't get much in return for him.
Lawson is an extremely talented player who is one of the fastest guys with the ball in his hands in the NBA, but he has had a lot of dirty laundry aired recently. Besides the Billups comments and his DUI isues, it has also been said that Lawson has a tendency to clash with coaches and has skipped practices blaming "travel plans," according to Yahoo! Sports.
Lawson will probably be playing for somebody next year, but at this point it likely won't be the Nuggets. Whichever team decides to give him a chance will likely have to have a short leash with him because at this point his behavior is becoming a huge problem and is interfering with his playing career.
