Former Utah Jazz draft pick Trey Lyles starting to ball out

Despite his poor finish with the Utah Jazz and slow start with the Denver Nuggets, Trey Lyles is actually beginning to play quite well for his new squad.

The Utah Jazz’s 12th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, Trey Lyles, will likely always be remembered for two things. First, that he was the one the Jazz selected instead of Devin Booker, who many thought they should have picked but instead he went 13th overall to the Phoenix Suns. And second, that he was the guy the Jazz used to fleece the Denver Nuggets in the Donovan Mitchell trade.

On the day of the 2017 NBA Draft, the Utah Jazz shipped out Trey Lyles and the 24th pick in the draft for Donovan Mitchell who was selected 13th overall. Jazz fans were initially excited by the exchange as Mitchell was visually thrilled to be in Utah and showed a ton of promise coming into the league, whereas Lyles had largely worn out his welcome with the Jazz by playing inconsistently and seldom showing up on defense.

Early this season, as Donovan Mitchell exploded into a rookie sensation while Lyles largely warmed the bench, there was a significant amount of chatter regarding how the Jazz had absolutely won the trade, essentially stealing away a future star in Mitchell for little more than a guy who couldn’t get off the bench for either the Jazz or the Nuggets.

Thinking the Jazz won the trade is certainly very much valid and if Donovan Mitchell, who currently leads the Utah Jazz as well as all rookies in scoring, lives up to his superstar potential, then that opinion will become even more validated than it’s been so far. Mitchell has been arguably Utah’s best player and should only continue to improve as his NBA career goes on.

However, in spite of how well Mitchell has played and continues to play, and regardless of Jazz fans’ feelings towards Trey Lyles, the young man out of Kentucky deserves some major credit because all of a sudden he is playing extremely well. Despite rarely logging much playing time early in the season, injuries have forced the Denver Nuggets to give Lyles more run and he’s absolutely taking advantage of it.

In a recent loss to the Indiana Pacers, Lyles was perhaps the brightest spot on his Nuggets team as he put up a career-high 25 points on 9-of-15 (60 percent) shooting from the field and an incredible 5-of-7 (71.4 percent) from deep.

Over the course of his last three games, Lyles is putting up 18 points while shooting 71.4 percent from the field and 75 percent from three while adding five rebounds per contest. He’s been solid over the last eight games as well as he’s logging 12.8 points on 53.8 percent shooting from the field and 57.7 percent from deep to go along with 5.8 rebounds.

https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/941149561220866048

Those recent figures are a substantial improvement from his stat line in his final year with the Jazz that saw him average just 6.2 points on 36.2 percent shooting from the field and 31.9 percent from deep while grabbing just 3.3 rebounds per game. Lyles actually figured to have a pretty significant role with the Jazz in his second season after a promising conclusion to his rookie year, but his unreliability led to him becoming buried in the rotation and he seldom contributed at all.

Thus, in a lot of ways it’s good to see him finally taking advantage of a new opportunity with the Denver Nuggets. Lyles earned the ire of several Jazz fans when he posted the infamous “Leonardo DiCaprio laughing GIF” on Twitter, mocking Jazz fans for missing out on Gordon Hayward this summer, but had he not done that, he likely would have still been pretty well liked.

Despite some mental lapses and poor play, he was an entertaining player when he was on and he certainly held the title for the best bench celebrations (where he spent most of his time, unfortunately), so in a lot of ways, his foolish GIF posting likely soiled his reputation in the eyes of several Jazz fans that would have likely otherwise respected him and pulled for him to do well with his new Nuggets team.

Regardless of who is and isn’t supporting him, though, it would appear that Lyles is slowly but surely beginning to find his groove. Of course, one of his biggest issues in Utah obviously had to do with his consistency, so it will be interesting to see whether this recent hot spurt is little more than an upswing or if he can maintain his solid play. If he does keep it up, it will also be intriguing to see what kind of role Denver gives him once Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic return to action.

Honestly, although I was irritated with Lyles’ stuck-up reaction to the Hayward situation, I didn’t really hold much against him other than that, so I’m happy that he’s getting a chance to showcase his skills and play a bigger role than he was allowed in Utah. To be perfectly frank, if he maintains this level of play, the Jazz could have very well utilized him in a stretch-four role to help spark the bench.

That being said, even if Lyles does end up becoming a consistent contributor as he’s been over the course of the last few games, I’ll still take Donovan Mitchell over him in a heartbeat. Lyles’ issues on defense alone are enough to make me glad to have Mitchell on the roster, not to mention the heart and determination that Donovan plays with and the fact that he has the makings of becoming an absolute star whereas Lyles will likely be little more than a role player.

Next: Will the Utah Jazz win another game the rest of December?

So, good for Trey Lyles to finally be getting some playing time and to be relishing his recent opportunity. I really am happy for him.

But I’m even happier that because of him, the Utah Jazz have Donovan Mitchell on their team. The trade looks a little less one-sided with Lyles balling out in recent contests, but I still feel pretty confident saying that the Utah Jazz got the better end of the deal.

And I’m looking forward to Mitchell proving that time and time again during the upcoming years.