Washington Wizards interested in Ty Lawson

The Washington Wizards are looking for a point guard to help fill the void left by John Wall, and Ty Lawson is reportedly on their radar.

The Washington Wizards are sitting pretty good right now, leading the Southeast Division at 32-24 and wins in six of their last eight games since John Wall (left knee surgery) has been sidelined. But recent injuries to Tomas Satoransky (concussion) and Tim Frazier (nose) have further accentuated the need for a point guard, if only for depth, and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has reported Washington is seriously considering signing Ty Lawson.

Lawson has been playing in China this season. He scored 55 points in his final game, on his way to leading that league in scoring (25.8 points per game) while averaging 6.6 assists and 2.4 steals per game.

Lawson was once one of the top young point guards in the NBA with the Denver Nuggets. But off the court issues, including multiple alcohol-related arrests, derailed him pretty quickly. He was traded to the Houston Rockets in July of 2015, then he was waived and signed with the Indiana Pacers for the end of the 2015-16 season. He spent last season with the Sacramento Kings, averaging 9.9 points, 4.8 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game over 69 games (24 starts). But after getting no NBA offers last offseason, Lawson landed in China.

Wojnarowski reported the Wizards are considering several point guards, including Derrick Rose, Ramon Sessions and Briante Weber. Brandon Jennings played 23 games for the Wizards last season and he could also enter the mix now, after reportedly coming back from China himself and signing a G-League contract on Tuesday.

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Wall is not expected to return until mid-March, at the earliest point on a 6-8 week timetable. So the Wizards need to survive at least another month without arguably their best player. Lawson is not on Wall’s level, but he looks like a better option to fill some of that void than Rose would be.