The Flower City kid is sticking around in Toronto.
Guard A.J. Lawson is reportedly being converted to a two-year standard NBA deal by the Raptors, taking him off his two-way slot, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania on Friday.
While the team did not disclose financial terms of the deal, Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy reported the 2025-26 portion of the contract will be fully non-guaranteed.
Lawson, a Brampton native, signed a two-way deal with Toronto back in December. He initially spent his time with the organization’s G League affiliate, the Raptors 905.
The 24-year-old averaged 19.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.2 steals while shooting 37.9 per cent from deep through 23 games with the junior dinos this season, making his impact felt on a nightly basis.
Since March, however, Lawson has been a mainstay of the NBA Raptors’ rotation. He’s played 24 games with Toronto this year, averaging career highs across the board in minutes (18.0), scoring (8.8), rebounds (3.2) and assists (1.2).
In that same span, Lawson’s scoring has jumped up to 10.5 points per game as he ranks eighth on the Raptors in scoring since March 1. He’s put up at least 13 points in four of his last five outings.
Lawson’s best game of the season came against the Washington Wizards on March 10 when he notched a double-double of 32 points and 12 rebounds. His career-high performance also tied Alex Caruso for the second-most points scored by a player while on a two-way contract in NBA history. He then followed up that effort by dropping 28 points, six rebounds and four assists on the Philadelphia 76ers two days later.
With the recent news of the Raptors waiving both forward Cole Swider, who they had recently signed for the remainder of the season, and centre Orlando Robinson, the idea of signing a player for not just the rest of the season but also an additional year, made sense with the extra flexibility. And now it’s clear, the Raptors opted to reward a hometown kid for his efforts toward the end of the season.
The timing is impeccable for Lawson as well, as the Raptors take on his former Dallas Mavericks on Friday. The undrafted South Carolina product spent the better part of two years between 2022 and 2024 with the Mavs, suiting up for 56 games in that span. At one point, Lawson was converted by Dallas to a standard deal in March of last year but was primarily kept on as a two-way player.
He’ll now get another extended look in the NBA, this time in a spot he’s much more familiar with.
