UNC draft trio Part Two

Tywon Lawson

hu-boy. Where to begin ...

Well, let's start with the arrest. He was in Chapel Hill a few days ago. Had a beer or two and then got in his Caddy with the music blasting full tilt.

Now it's 2:30 a.m., and you're 20 years old (too young to drink in N.C.). Do you sneak on home and hope you don't get caught, or do you crank up the music so loud that you invite a traffic stop?
No, wait. Don't tell me. Umm ... loud music???

Now, does this hamper his draft hopes? Not if it's the Portland Jailblazers or the NFL's Oakland Raiders, but wouldn't other teams be put off by this?

Headline reads: Director of NBA scouting says Lawson's draft status unaffected by incident

Marty Blake, younger brother of Methuselah, projects Lawson as a first-round pick, and his arrest for drinking and then driving won’t affect that.

“It’s not going to make any difference. I think this is an isolated case,” Blake said.

Wait, wait. No it's not. Sure, this is the first time he's been arrested for underage drinking, but police reports show he's been pulled over for excessive speeding three times in the past year. 80 in a 65 zone, 70 in a 55 zone, and 68 in a 45 zone.

And it's not just that he "feels the need for speed" to paraphrase Top Gun, but that he missed his court dates on all three. He had his license taken away because of his repeated failures to appear.

Now this goes beyond a little college naughty-naughty. He's shown an open disregard for authority. Do you think THAT is going to get better when he's pulling down a million a year?


Okay, there are worse thugs out there. Duke center Sheldon Williams was one of five high school players named by police as taking part in a gang rape of a 20-year-old woman in Jan. 2002. The woman refused to testify even though there were other witnesses.

Somehow Sheldon was never charged, and Coach K welcomed him to school with open arms. Hmm, interesting isn't it? Never showed that side of Duke basketball in Coach K's American Express commercials.

I also have this vague recollection of Sheldon being accused of assault for grabbing his girlfriend by the neck, but my attempts to discover that via Google have failed.


So, does Tywon deserve to be drafted midway through the first round?

Not so fast. More harmful than his police file is his health. Is he really fragile or is he wimpy?
ACC fans were wondering that for the second half of the ACC season.

Okay, the guy rolls his ankle. No broken bones, but a solid ankle sprain.

Been there, done that. In fact, I've done it at least three times to each ankle. One was a partial tear of either a tendon or a ligament (I forget which -- it was 15 years ago), and my foot turned purple from blood pooling up from the tear. So when I say I know sprained ankles, you can believe me.

Now, no one called Tywon's injury a "high ankle sprain" which is worse and takes several weeks to heal. His was an ordinary sprain, which hurts to walk on for about three days and hurts to run on for a few days more. Now, making quick cuts like you'd do on a basketball court takes a couple of weeks of healing. Three at most. But Lawson missed a full month.

Coach Roy Williams spoke a little too honestly to the press, and I bet that ticked off the whole Lawson family, but the truth is the truth. Ole Roy said that some young players who have never been injured just don't know how to handle the pain. They think they have to be completely pain-free before they can resume practice.

Ouch! The truth can be painful at times, and the truth is that Lawson should have come back sooner, but either he was worried about returning too soon and risking his NBA draft status, or he is the type of person who simply heals slower.

Lawson told one sports reporter that he played the second half of the season hurt. That's pretty troubling to me if I'm an NBA general manager. Is this guy gonna be watching from the bench like Greg Oden?

He only played in one game at the Orlando pre-draft games. He claimed a hip pointer, though some thought he was just sitting it out after one solid performance.

Then during workouts for individual teams, he sprained his ankle again and had to skip a trip.


And let's not forget that the guy is only 5'11 barefoot, which makes it harder for him to cover those 6'2 and 6'3 PGs that line many NBA rosters. Sure, he's quick and has great leaping ability, but he has short arms, which means he can't reach up or out to the sides as far as other PGs when trying to prevent entry passes to the post.

How short are his arms? Well, I'll save that for a later post, but let's just say they were the shortest of all the players measured.


I wish Tywon well because I know he won't return to college for his junior year. I wish he would though, and not just because I root for the Heels. He has yet to show me that he can really run an offense. He blew by defenders in the open court, but he is quite inaccurate with his passes. So many times this past year I've watched Ellington and Green curl around a screen to receive a pass, but the ball is just enough offline that the catch-and-shoot are thrown off-rhythm.