It has been a long and bumpy road for former Jayhawk Dedric Lawson. He bounced from school to school in college and has now done the same during his short time in the NBA.
It was announced that Lawson had been cut from the Warriors Summer League team officially making him a free agent, but what made it interesting is he could finish out league play with the team until he found himself another landing spot, essentially making this an audition for Lawson to make an impression on all the other 29 teams in the league.
An even bigger chip on his shoulder landed on draft night when,after 60 picks, Lawson’s name was never called. Lawson found himself sitting at his home in Memphis wondering if and when he would get his shot in the league.
That is until about 30 minutes after the draft, the Golden State Warriors came into the Lawson’s camps radar and offered him a two-way contract.
Undrafted forward Dedric Lawson out of Kansas has committed to playing Summer League with the Golden State Warriors, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. He was the BIG 12’s top scorer (19.1) and rebounder (10.6).
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 21, 2019
"“He told me that was a possibility but I was under the impression that they weren’t going to make a final decision for a couple of days. But Golden State was a team that liked him and I think they had 41 and 58, if I’m not mistaken, and I was hopeful on that deal, but he has just as good a chance as making the team as whoever they [would have] picked at 58.” [they ended up trading that pick.] Kansas coach Bill Self said after draft night. “It just comes down to a need and those sorts of things. But obviously if he’s going to play and try to get involved with a group, that’s a pretty good group to get involved with.”"
Lawson was an intriguing fit for the Warriors because of his long frame and huge inside presence, getting rebounds every time he is in the paint, something he did a lot of while at Kansas getting 10.3 rebounds per game going along with 19.4 points per game.
During his one year at Kansas he had 22 doubles doubles in 36 games and in a year of much uncertainty at times, he was someone the Jayhawks could lean on game after game.
Lawson spend the Summer League with the Warriors, averaging 16.8 minutes per game (10.4 MPG in the California Classic), 6.0 points (4.5 PPG in the California Classic), 4.8 rebounds (2 RPG in the California Classic) and 2.3 assists (0.5 APG in the California Classic) in 6 out of the 7 games that he appeared in during the California Classic and the Las Vegas Summer League.
One of the biggest criticisms of Lawson’s game out of college was his lack of jumping ability and how slow he is off the catch, moving to get himself in position to make a play. At the combine he had a wingspan of 7-foot-2 ¼ wingspan ranking fourth out of the 15 power forwards that were there and a 8-foot-11 ½ standing ranking sixth.
In the third to last game of the summer schedule the Warriors had, Lawson had a pretty great showing scoring 11 points also tallying seven rebounds and three assists in 19 minutes on 5 of 10 shooting from the field, but missing all three of his three point attempts.
However, in the next game, he only had six points, six rebounds and four assists in 22 minutes on 40% shooting from the field while also not attempting a three in the game.
That now leads us to where we are right now. It was reported last week that Lawson had found a new home with the San Antonio Spurs getting what was called a “not guaranteed exhibit 10 contract.
Being told #Spurs have agreed to terms with forward Dedric Lawson out of Kansas. Deal is a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract. #NBA @TheAthleticNBA pic.twitter.com/KGzSROQ92h
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) July 23, 2019
"“Exhibit 10 attachments allow the NBA team to convert a player’s one-year, minimum contract into a two-way contract but this has to occur prior to the start of the regular season,” said Austin Kent back in June who is a writer for the website Slam. “These one-year deals are often non-guaranteed, which lets NBA teams waive the player and remove their cap hit from the team payroll. Exhibit 10 attachments allow players to earn a bonus of $5,000 to $50,000 in the event that they are waived by the NBA team, then sign a deal with that franchise’s G League affiliate and remain with that affiliate team for 60 days."
Also, as long as the Spurs keep him on the first team and do not put him on the G-League team to begin the 2019-2020 season, he will be in line to make a minimum rookie contract that would amount to just under $900,000.
What also makes this even more interesting and good for Lawson is longtime phenom and Spur legend Tim Duncan was hired to be an assistant coach for the Spurs next season. In his storied 1392 game career (all with the San Antonio Spurs) he averaged 19 PPG, just under 11 RPG and 3 APG.
If Lawson is going to succeed anywhere, it could very well be in San Antonio, learning how to be a dominant big man in the NBA from arguably one of, if not, the greatest power forwards to ever play the game of basketball.
Second chances don’t come around without a huge leash on you, but this could be the best possible outcome for Lawson and if he works hard and performs like he has everywhere else he has been, the future is extremely bright for Lawson.