Ty Lawson just finished up his two-game suspension for a DUI he committed back in 2014, and he played very well in his return, scoring 11 points in a loss against the Orlando Magic. Despite his nice game in his return, Lawson has struggled in his first season with the Houston Rockets, so they are reportedly looking to trade him. The Rockets have been looking for a trade partner to unload Lawson for a while now, but the market for the 28-year-old point guard is "minimal," according to Ken Berger of CBS Sports.
There have been conflicting reports about whether the Rockers actually want to trade Lawson. At first it seemed like the Rockets and Lawson's representatives were working together to find a trade, but then it was reported that the Rockets wanted to keep Lawson, but his camp wanted a trade in search of more playing time.
Lawson has been a headache for the Rockets lately, so it is possible that they are looking to trade him just to rid themselves of that headache. However, if that's not the reason, then they don't have much reason to want to trade him. Lawson's trade value was fairly low when the Rockets acquired him this offseason, but it has done nothing but go down since he joined Houston, as he has been moved to a full-time bench role and not played very well.
The Rockets currently feel that Lawson will bring more to the table for them as a player off the bench than he would be able to bring them in return via trade. It is worth a look for the Rockets to see what they might be able to get back for a player who was a borderline All-Star just last year, but as of right now, they aren't finding many takers. "The only team that makes sense already has Rajon Rondo, there's no market," one Eastern Conference executive said.
Lawson is currently averaging 6.1 points and 4.1 assists in 27 games, which would be right near his career lows. There has been talk that maybe the Rockets would agree to a buyout with Lawson later in the year to make him happier by allowing him to sign somewhere else and get more minutes, but it doesn't seem like that is an option right now. The best bet is that Lawson stays with Houston for the rest of this season in a limited role and looks for other opportunities next summer.
