New Houston Rockets point guard Ty Lawson has been speaking his mind a lot lately.
Lawson spoke on what it takes to be considered an elite guard in the Association, via Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
“I don’t think you’ve ever seen so many good point guards in one conference at one time in the league ever,” Lawson told Yahoo Sports. “But you’ve got to win. If you want to be an elite PG in this league, you’ve got to win. You’ve got to be in the conference finals, the NBA Finals. If you’re not winning, you’ll always be a second-tier, or third-tier point guard.”
Since 2010 Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo, Steph Curry, Mario Chalmers, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, Derrick Rose, Jeff Teague, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Mike Conley, and George Hill have all reached the Conference Finals as starting point guards.
However, do you not deem point guards like Chris Paul, Damian Lillard or John Wall elite?
As a Denver Nugget, Lawson reached the Western Conference Finals serving as a backup to Chauncey Billups, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in 6 games in 2010. Since that trip, Lawson has been to the NBA Playoffs from 2011 to 2013 and has failed to get out of the first round.
So the question really is who’s elite and what criteria makes a guard elite?
Can Lawson be elite in his new change of scenery in Houston?
Lawson averaged 15.2 points and 9.6 assists in 75 games last season for the Nuggets.
