Big 12 Basketball: Top 5 decisions to be made regarding 2019 NBA Draft
By Josh Stevens
Dedric Lawson – Kansas
Lawson is Mr. Consistent for Kansas much like he was while at Memphis. He averaged a double-double this season while scoring 19.4 points per game. He only scored in the single digits twice this season with one of those games being a zero point game against Vermont. On the contrary to that, he only scored over 26 points five times this year. He is also a strong shooter from the outside at 39%. Lawson is thought to be a potential late second-round pick, but I believe he could work his way into the middle of that round.
The downside to Lawson is that is really not an athletic big man. He is too short to guard a center, and to guard a power forward in the NBA would mean match-ups against Giannis, Julius Randle, and Blake Griffin. Those are match-ups that would be very one-sided.
I love Lawson on the offensive side of the ball, but there is just a limit to what he can do on defense, and we even saw a freshman in Derek Culver take advantage of him this year. He will end up staying in the draft as Kansas is struggling right now. His brother KJ also just transferred out of the program which leads me to believe he is gone as well.