Top 30 Seasons Under Bill Self: #12 Dedric Lawson 2019

All Dedric Lawson did in his one year at Kansas was lead the Big 12 in both scoring and rebounding. It’s fair to suggest those numbers are a bit overinflated due to the early season ending injury to Udoka Azubuike and Quentin Grimes being a surprising nonfactor, but Lawson was still incredibly efficient. He has the 2nd highest usage rate at Kansas since 2008, and among players with a usage rate over 25 percent he ranks 4th in true shooting percentage, 4th in offensive rebounding, and has the 2nd lowest turnover rate.

Lawson also led the Big 12 in 2019 in box plus minus and offensive win shares, and was also 6th in defensive win shares, proving he wasn’t just an all offense guy. He’s also one of only 5 Jayhawks since 2010 to have a block percentage over 3 percent and a steal percentage over 2 percent while playing over 500 minutes. (Jamari Traylor did it twice).

It was a season of maddening consistency for Lawson. He averaged just shy of 20 points per game, but only twice scored 30 or more and only twice scored fewer than 10. It wasn’t just volume either. He’s one of just two Jayhawks under Bill Self to take more than 400 2-point field goal attempts and shoot more than 50 percent from two, the other being Thomas Robinson in 2012. (the full list since 1993 is an absolute who’s who of Jayhawks: Raef twice, Collison twice, Gooden, Pierce, and the aforementioned Robinson and Lawson. Point being, Dedric had an elite offensive season).

What probably holds Lawson back in a lot of people’s minds is the season Kansas ended up having. The 10 losses is tied for the most Bill Self had at Kansas, it was the only time since his 2nd year at the school they didn’t win the Big 12, the 4 seed was tied for the lowest he has had at Kansas, and by the Torvik rankings, it was the program’s worst team since 2008.

But it wasn’t Dedric’s fault Azubuike got hurt (Kansas was undefeated with him in the lineup and went 15-10 without him), or that Quentin Grimes couldn’t provide much in the way of offense. Lawson had to deal with being double and even sometimes triple teamed on offense, and being targeted a lot on defense. Despite all this, he was able to play 32 minutes per game, rank 6th in assist rate among KU big men since 2008, 8th in defensive rebounding, 16th in offensive rebounding, 8th in box plus minus, and 1st in PRPG. There haven’t been many better offensive seasons than Dedric Lawson’s 2019 and he’s deservedly knocking on the top 10 of our countdown.

Previous:

13. Jeff Withey 2012

14. Tyshawn Taylor 2012

15. Brandon Rush 2008

16. Joel Embiid 2014

17. Sherron Collins 2010

18. Darrell Arthur 2008

19. Cole Aldrich 2010

20. Ben McLemore 2013

21. Markieff Morris 2011

22. Andrew Wiggins 2014

23. Jeff Withey 2013

24. Josh Jackson 2017

25. Marcus Garrett 2020

26. Travis Releford 2013

27. Perry Ellis 2015

28. Udoka Azubuike 2018

29. Wayne Simien 2004

30. Devonte Graham 2017

31. Malik Newman 2018

32. Wayne Selden 2016

33. Keith Langford 2004