After much speculation over the past week, the Denver Nuggets finally traded Ty Lawson to the Houston Rockets. In return for Lawson the Rockets received a few lower-tier players along with a protected first round pick. One of those lower tier players is Pablo Prigioni, a 38-year-old backup point guard. The Nuggets only took Prigioni in the trade to make the salaries work, and it is being reported that he is likely to be waived or traded very soon, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Prigioni was never going to be a good fit for the Nuggets because of his age, as the Nuggets are in full rebuild mode and would rather give minutes to young guys who they think could be part of their future. The Rockets were able to trade him away because they now have two solid point guards with Lawson as the starter and Patrick Beverley likely to be coming off the bench.
Prigioni is set to make about $1.7 million next season, but only $440 thousand of it is guaranteed if he is released by Monday, so if the Nuggets can't find a trade for him quickly he is reportedly going to be waived.
There is still a place for Prigioni in the league even at his advanced age. He came over to the NBA in 2012 at age 35 and has been a solid backup point guard. He doesn't wow you with anything he does, but he has a high basketball IQ, gets a lot of steals by being a pesky defender and can knock down the three with consistency (career 40 percent from three.)
It seems likely that a team with a chance to contend will pick up Prigioni either via trade or after he is released. Prigioni isn't a great defender, but you can do much worse than bringing him off the bench as a backup point guard who sets up his teammates and knocks down the triple.
