For the Gamecocks to achieve what they want to this season, they needed and will continue to need AJ Lawson to play at a high level.

The guard who earned all-freshman honors his first year on campus and has tested NBA waters the last two offseasons is expected to be a key piece of a Gamecocks team with NCAA Tournament aspirations.

While he hasn't gotten a chance to show much of it — the Gamecocks have only played three times because of a COVID pause — Lawson is off to a really good start in his junior season.

For the raw stats, Lawson is averaging 11.3 points on 41.4 percent shooting to start the year while averaging two assists and 2.6 turnovers per game.

But a deeper dive into the numbers show marked improvement.

As of Wednesday night, Lawson was in the top 10 percent of all players nationally in offensive rating at 114.8. That metric measures a player's offensive efficiency output, essentially showing how smart he is with the basketball when he has it.

Lawson is one of the best in the country, ranking in the 90th percentile in that metric.

He's also taking 26 percent of his team's shots and doing well getting the ball in the basket; he's 54.5 percent from two and 33.3 percent from three in a very limited sample size.

Lawson is also staying out of foul trouble, committing 1.5 fouls per 40 minutes, one of the lowest in the country.

The biggest stride is in Lawson cutting down on his turnovers.

He's sporting a turnover rate of just 7.3 this season, which is the 68th-best in the country right now and far lower than where he's been at in his career.

As a freshman he had a 19.7 turnover rate and, while it dipped slightly as a sophomore, he was still up at 17 percent.

It's a very small sample size of just three games, but Lawson has started the season much better than he did last year.

He's more efficient scoring the ball and has cut down significantly on the rate at which he's turning the ball over.

He's playing a role the Gamecocks need him to play and scoring at a much more efficient rate that he has in the past.

When he gets another chance to play is the biggest question.

South Carolina has been on pause since getting back from Houston Dec. 5 with positive COVID tests causing problems.

The team's had three games canceled — home games against Wofford and SC State and a road game at George Washington — and two more at least postponed: the annual rivalry against Clemson and Dec. 29's SEC opener against Kentucky.