REPORTS: Ty Lawson a No-Show for Nuggets Practice

Mar 13, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Nuggets guard Ty Lawson watches from the bench during the second half against the New York Knicks at the Pepsi Center. The Nuggets won 117-94.Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Maybe Ty Lawson knows something the rest of us don’t.

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Yahoo Sports is reporting that Lawson missed the Denver Nuggets’ first post-All Star break practice today:

"Coach Brian Shaw is looking into the reason why before handing out any sort of punishment. Asked about Lawson’s nonattendance, Shaw said: ”Travel issues or whatever, he’s not here. … So we had to go without him.” Shaw said one of the choices may be holding Lawson out of the starting lineup Friday in Milwaukee."

Lawson’s absence comes amid an avalanche of rumors that the point guard may be available to interested teams ahead of tomorrow’s trade deadline. The Denver Post’s Chris Dempsey reported that the Nuggets weren’t actively shopping Lawson, but who knows if that’s still the case after this latest miscue. Dempsey followed up with a story on Lawson missing today’s practice, and the quotes from Brian Shaw speak volumes:

"“We had a week off or nine days between games, and you expect everybody to be here,” Shaw said. “It disrupts the planning of everything, in terms of you count on somebody in practice. But he’s not here so we had to go without him.”“When we had the coaches meetings this morning, all of the other guys came in and did their shooting,” Shaw said. “And we (the coaches) came up right at the start of practice at 11 o’clock and that was the first that I noticed that he wasn’t there.”"

There really is no excuse for not making it back on time. Lawson is an NBA veteran and supposedly one of the leaders of this Nuggets squad. The fact that this comes on the heels of his recent arrest for suspicion of driven under the influence of alcohol, and it starts to show a pattern of behavior that no team wants out of its star player.

Judging from photos he shared on Instagram, it looks like Lawson spent part of the All-Star break in L.A. and Las Vegas, making the most of his time away from the game:

Hopefully this was something as simple as a miscommunication about travel plans. But Nuggets fans should ask themselves: If Lawson isn’t traded tomorrow, is there much of a chance he won’t be traded before next season starts? It’s looking more and more doubtful.

UPDATE: Lawson responded via Instagram. This sounds great and hopefully this is a “mountain out of a mole hill” situation, but we’ll have to wait and see:

Next: Ty Lawson Trade Rumors: Are the Bucks in the Mix?

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