The Denver Nuggets should trade Ty Lawson as soon as possible — for the benefit of the team, its future and Emmanuel Mudiay
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When the Denver Nuggets drafted Emmanuel Mudiay with the No. 7 overall pick in last month’s NBA Draft, the writing was on the wall.
It would be a matter of when, not if, the Nuggets would trade Ty Lawson, the team’s starting point guard. For one, if Lawson wasn’t going to be traded, the Nuggets could’ve went a different route on draft day. They didn’t have to take Mudiay, especially with Justise Winslow still on the board, they just decided to.
Mudiay represents the future and Lawson represents the disappointing past. The question is, really, when are the Nuggets going to decide to burn the horrible bridge of mediocrity that connects that two, which, ironically, the team is stuck on.
It needs to be sooner rather than later. Even former Denver Nuggets point guard, Chauncey Billups, echoes that thought.
"[via 104.3 The Fan, Transcribed by CBS Sports]I mean, well, one, Ty, he has not demonstrated what you want from the leader of your team and a guy who they’ve handed the keys to. He’s not demonstrated the kind of leadership that you want. And you have a young kid named [Emmanuel] Mudiay coming in who I think has a chance to be a star in this league. Right now the best player on the team is Ty Lawson. As a young player in the league, you come in 19-20 years old, you oftentimes try to emulate some of the actions on the floor and off the floor of the best player because that’s one day what you want to be. So I think just from the standpoint of the welfare of Mudiay and the well-being and the growth of Mudiay, you have to get Ty Lawson and you have to move him along."
Essentially, Billups said that in order for the proper development of Mudiay, the Denver Nuggets need to get Lawson as far away from Mudiay as they can. In essence, Denver needs to trade Lawson as soon as possible.
And he’s right.
Denver is not going to make a playoff run, much less a championship one. Denver has a lot of excess fat on the team that they simply need to cut. And until they do, they are only harming the future core of the team. Sure, Mudiay might not be ready to run a team in the NBA. That would be unfair to ask of him.
But it would also be unfair to put him in an awkward position with Lawson. The thing is that Lawson knows he’s going to eventually get traded. It’s difficult for a player to be in a place that they know they won’t be in a coupe of months, professional or not.
The Denver Nuggets need to trade Ty Lawson as soon as possible — for the benefit of the team, the future and Emmanuel Mudiay.