Denver's Ty Lawson Shows Glimmer of What May Be a Bright Star Rising in Rockies

Friday night, Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony both sat due to George Karl’s decision, likely to get his biggest stars some rest with the regular season’s start looming this Wednesday against the Jazz in Denver.

But with the stars sitting, it gave the backups an opportunity to shine—and rookie Ty Lawson grabbed his chance and ran with an amazing 29-point performance against the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Lawson drove quickly and distributed the ball well, with six assists, and added five steals as well. Sure, he was playing against the Lakers reserves for the most part, but the numbers are still encouraging for a first-year NBA player.

But Friday night wasn’t Lawson’s only big performance, as he’s had some others already this preseason. Two games ago against Minnesota (Oct. 20) the youngster scored 10 points with eight assists, six rebounds and four steals.

In Denver’s second game against Indiana in Beijing, a 128-112 blowout, Lawson scored eight with four rebounds and two dimes.

In seven games this preseason, Lawson’s first NBA action, he’s averaged 10.6 points, 2.4 assists, two rebounds and 2.3 steals in 18 minutes per game. Those are definitely promising numbers, second in points and assists behind Jonny Flynn (14.6, 4.5) of the Timberwolves.

But even with all the success, realistically Lawson may not be the Nuggets’ backup point guard in 2009-10 even though he seems to have lots of upside.

Sure, he went to North Carolina, and George Karl loves fellow Tar Heels, but Karl also loathes giving rookies too much playing time.

Obviously Billups, the 13-year veteran leader of the Nuggets will be starting for Karl this year, and Anthony Carter will likely stay ahead of Lawson on the depth chart.

Karl has consistently called Carter Denver’s best perimeter defender, and the coach likes the ball in the hands of a veteran during key points in games.

No matter how much time Lawson gets this year though, he is turning out to be a great move for the Nuggets front office this preseason.

While Billups has said many times recently he wants to finish his career in Denver, his hometown, those playing days may be closer to being over than any Nuggets fan could hope.

Denver is in need of a point guard of the future, and Lawson will with any luck be that player.

Now, everyone in Denver hopes his upside is a mile high and one day he can consistently play at the level he did Friday night.