Thirteen mornings ago, George Karl’s flabbergasted voice nearly cracked, as when Jim Mora was asked about playoffs.
“Leadership?” Karl said, repeating the subject matter in question. “You’re asking a rookie to jump into a very emotional, unstable team at times — and to take those responsibilities? We’d like Ty (Lawson) to be more assertive and demanding, but (being) vocal to this team would probably be more of a bomb going (off) than being successful. How he figures that out, how it grows, is part of coaching and part of him growing up and being a pro.”
Thirteen days later, Lawson is still the Nuggets’ starting point guard, dealing with growing pains while Chauncey Billups deals with groin pains. Denver is just 2-5 with the rookie starting but, darn it, there’s hope! North Carolina’s little general-turned-Denver’s little lieutenant is developing a personality in these games, and this extended playing time could strengthen Lawson as a leader for later this season (in other words, the playoffs) — and later this decade.
“Injuries have a way of developing a (fill-in’s) personality, magnifying or bringing forward a personality that the team respects,” Karl said Monday.
Billups is so great because he’s the soul of this team — inspiring teammates with his words and his on- court decisions. As Karl said 13 days ago — after Lawson’s worst game as a pro — the kid’s not going to be in Kenyon Martin’s ear anytime soon. But we’ve seen snippets of other forms of Lawson’s leadership.
In the fourth quarter of Saturday’s victory at Utah — crunch time in a big road game — Lawson was poised like a pro, scoring six points and also contributing four assists and two steals. Best of all, not one turnover. The next night, he went the whole game without a turnover, again tallying 23 points and nine assists, this time in defeat. And he led by example in the fourth-quarter near-comeback, hustling and creating — including his white-knuckle drive for a layup with 14.3 seconds left.
I wrote in this column last month that Lawson must become more consistent in the half-court game, as well as with his inspiration of the insipid second unit (which has hurt Denver in previous games). But one would think that Lawson’s here-and-there successes with the first unit can help him when he’s back running the second unit.
