Pacers point guard Ty Lawson feels he was used improperly by the Rockets during his stint with them this season, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports. Lawson felt Houston interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff erred by playing him off the ball instead of making him the primary ballhandler. “I just know I was a better player than what I was showing there,” Lawson told Feigen, while adding he harbors no resentment toward the organization. “I wasn’t being used the right way. I’m not a space player. I like to have the ball in my hands.” Bickerstaff acknowledged in the story that he could have utilized Lawson differently. The Pacers signed Lawson earlier this month after he reached a buyout arrangement with the Rockets and cleared waivers. “I don’t know if it was just the early transition of him learning to play without the ball, the limited opportunity he got,” Bickerstaff said. “That may be some of my responsibility because he didn’t get the opportunity he was accustomed to. For whatever reason, it didn’t work and I was sad to see him go.”
In other news around the league:
- Ohio State 6’11” sophomore center Trevor Thompson will declare for the draft but not hire an agent, he told ESPN’s Jeff Goodman. Thompson posted modest numbers as a sophomore, averaging 6.5 points and 5.1 rebounds in 17.9 minutes per game. Thompson has a long climb ahead of him to make himself a draft-worthy prospect, as he’s not currently among the Top 100 prospects listed by either Chad Ford of ESPN.com or Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
- Florida State freshman small forward Dwayne Bacon has decided to return to school for another season, according to both Goodman and CBSSports.com’s Jon Rothstein (Twitter links). Rothstein reported last week that Bacon intended to enter the draft but not hire an agent. The 6’7” Bacon was ranked as the No. 72 overall prospect by Ford and No. 74 by Givony. Bacon had a strong freshman campaign, averaging 15.8 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Seminoles.
- The Clippers recalled C.J. Wilcox from the D-League’s Canton Charge, the team announced. Wilcox averaged 21.7 points in three games during his latest assignment and has appeared in 14 games for the Charge. He’s also played 14 games for the Clippers, averaging 1.6 points in 4.4 minutes.
- The Hawks assigned swingman Lamar Patterson to the D-League’s Austin Spurs, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. Patterson has played in a combined 16 games for Austin and the Canton Charge under the league’s flexible assignment rule. Patterson has also appeared in 35 games with the Hawks, averaging 2.4 points in 11.3 minutes.