In my humble opinion Lawson is a well rounded PG. Give him 30 minutes a game and he'll get you 15 pt's and 9 or 10 assists, and he'll do it without being ball dominate like Rondo used to be. Lawson has been a far better defender than I expected. Yeah, his size is a bit of a disadvantage, but all in all, he's been a very good defender. Lawson does a great job of breaking down the other teams defense on a regular basis. If you can resign him to a reasonable contract, I'd do it. All things being equal, I'd take Lawson 10 out of 10 times over Joseph.
I agree, that Lawson has been a very decent defender and he is the only one able to break down a defense, when Cousins sits.
But stats are highly dependant on playing time and player role in the offense. Lawson will indeed give you decent stats, if you fully commit to him and let him be the decision maker. The problem is, that Lawson isn't the guy, who I would like next to DMC. I don't think those two are a very good pairing. Lawson wants to speed up the game as much as humanly possible. That's his strong point. He is not a great shooter. His drives are most dangerous, when in transition or when he attacks before the D can get set. He is ideal next to WCS, until father time finally runs him down and takes away some of his quickness.
Joseph on the other hand, plays an entirely different role. When you take a look at the regular 5 man combinations of the Raptors it's obvious, that Joseph always plays with one of the ball dominant guards of the Raptors. He is never the lone decision maker. In fact he plays way more in the off the ball role. When you look at NBA team stats the Raptors are tied with the Suns for the least assists per game this season. What does that mean? Are Lowry or Joseph unable to run a team? I don't think so - the role of the guards in the Raptors system is to finish. The guards are scorers and not playmakers.
So after all there are reasons, why Joseph has an entirely different statline than Lawson.
What makes Joseph appealing is, that he is signed for a couple of years to a reasonable contract. He is in his prime. He recieved a very fundamentally sound basketball education in the Spurs school. He is a hard worker, even voluntarily going to the D-League to get playing time and to get better when with the Spurs. He is a full sized combo guard able to play and to defend both guards positions. From my observations he has a very decent understanding of the pick&roll. He is ranked 19th in Assist to Turnover ratio in 2016/17 meaning he usually takes very good care of the ball, which is absolutely crucial, if we want to continue down the DMC road, where every live ball TO is costly. This year he extended his game out to the 3pt line, shooting a decent percentage, although most of his 3 pointers are assisted, meaning he maybe is not a good off the dribble shooter from 3 yet.
So despite his unimpressive statline there is a lot to like about Corey Joseph.
His skillset maybe makes him more of a possible DC successor, than a substitute for Ty Lawson, but he is certainly a PG I would like on the Kings.
Generally my prefered type of PG is very consistent:
Big, versatile, good defender (which is the biggest question mark with Joseph this year), decent playmaker, decent shooter or at least young enough to become a decent shooter over time.
Sadly those guys don't grow on trees. So when you rule out someone like Joseph, how should the Kings go forward at the PG position?
Should we resign DC and Lawson and continue to field one of the smallest PG rotations of the league, which hinders our ability to switch ball screens? Do you think we have a chance to sign one of Hill, Holiday or Teague? Or should we go after guys like Mill, Livingston or even Rose or Jennings?
Because for me the PG position is one of the biggest question marks for the Kings going forward and it seems extremely difficult to upgrade it.