Toronto Raptors ink 2-year contract with Brampton’s A.J. Lawson

The Toronto Raptors have converted Brampton native A.J. Lawson’s two-way deal to a two-year contract a month after recording his highest-scoring game in front of a hometown crowd.

The 24-year-old guard from Brampton signed a two-way contract with the Raptors in December, but now has a standard NBA contract with Toronto according to reports from ESPN and Sportsnet.

Lawson’s path to the NBA and suiting up with his childhood team started when he went undrafted out of South Carolina in 2021, then signed with the College Park Skyhawks, the G-League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks, the next year.

He then played a season with the Guelph Nighthawks of the Canadian Elite Basketball League before joining the Dallas Mavericks’ summer league team and spending time with the Minnesota Timberwolves before signing the two-way deal.

Lawson was one of four Raptors to earn a double-double as Toronto routed the Washington Wizards 119-104 on March 10, and finished with 32 points and 12 rebounds, both career highs, off the bench.

His previous scoring high was on Dec. 23, 2023, when he had 17 points for Dallas in a 144-119 win over the San Antonio Spurs.

If he had scored four more points in the March 10 game against the Wizards he would have become the highest-scoring player on a two-way contract in NBA/G-League history.

Lawson has averaged 8.8 points and 3.2 rebounds for the Raptors so far this season, playing an average of 18 minutes in 24 games including two starts.

– With files from The Canadian Press