Kings' Ty Lawson: Looks in line to return to bench role

Lawson is expected to see a steep decline in minutes with Darren Collison (suspension) set to return to action Tuesday against the Pelicans, Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee reports.

Analysis:

Lawson started each of the Kings' first eight games at point guard while Collison was under suspension, but didn't exactly rise to the occasion. While his 6.6 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game were respectable marks, Lawson averaged just 6.4 points in 32.0 minutes per contest while shooting a woeful 32.1 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from three-point range. Collison brings better scoring ability than Lawson at this stage of their respective careers, so it's expected that the former will immediately claim the starting duties at point guard and routinely hit 30 minutes per game, just as he had during his last two seasons with Sacramento. It may be worthwhile to hold Lawson for a game or two just in case the minutes distribution remains a bit more even than anticipated, but even in that scenario, Lawson is still in line for a stark decline in his fantasy value.