Summary
Lawson went undrafted in 2021, and has spent the majority of the last two seasons on a two-way contract, which was converted to a standard contract late in the '23-'24 season. He only played about 200 minutes of non-garbage time in 27 games in '23-'24.

He has been productive in the G-League, scoring over 15 points per game on good efficiency (64% true shooting), using his elite athleticism to finish strong inside. He needs to improve as a shooter to be a real threat in the NBA, but has at least hit 32% from 3 in the G League thus far. 

Lawson will be 24 years old as a potential free agent in 2024, so he's not exactly a young prospect but he's young enough that there's reasonable expectation for improvement.
 
Cap Considerations
Lawson's $2.1 million salary for 2024-2025 is non-guaranteed, and if he is waived he will become an unrestricted free agent and the Mavericks will have no form of Bird rights on him. If he is waived, teams could claim him off waivers, but would need to fit his salary within cap space or an exception to do so, as his contract does not fit within the minimum salary exception as it was for four years.
 
If Lawson becomes a free agent, other teams will have multiple ways to sign him as even teams without cap space could use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. If Lawson is waived and clears waivers, his value will likely have dropped low enough that he would only have offers for the minimum, and may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.