Height: 6-10
Weight: 241
Year: Freshman
Position: Power Forward
NBA Combine Measurements:
2014-2015 NCAA Statistics:
8.7 PPG 5.2 RPG 1.1 APG 48.8 FG% 13.8 3PT% 73.5 FT%
Draft Projection: Mid First Round
NBA Player Comparison: Anthony Randolph
Trey Lyles is an incredible athlete with a solid jumper from mid-range. He has good height and great length. The problem with analyzing someone who played on Calipari’s Kentucky team is that we haven’t seen his full capabilities on a basketball court. Lyles received significant playing time on Kentucky during the regular season and in the NCAA Tournament. He was a HUGE match-up problem for the opposing team as he mostly played small forward with Cauley-Stein and Towns being the two big men down-low.
Lyles lacks the quickness to be a small forward in the NBA, plain and simple. He is a solid defender, but at this point would not be able to keep up with any starting offensive-minded small forwards in the NBA. This leaves him with one choice of being a stretch-four. The problem with him being a stretch-four is that he can’t hit the 3 point shot. I truly believe he can start to develop one, but it won’t get to a state where it is efficient enough for him to be taking it at a high rate.
Trey Lyles shares a similar problem to what Anthony Randolph had when he was in the NBA. They both are athletic players who have a great mid-range shot. With teams continuing to go away from that shot and focus on the three point shooting, solid mid-range shooters like these two have faded away in terms of importance. Now, Lyles is much tougher and more aggresive than Anthony Randolph so I do believe Try Lyles has the capability of being a solid contributer in the NBA, unlike Randolph, but his inability to be a solid two-way player at the power forward position will surely hurt his hopes of being a serious candidate to earn a spot in a starting lineup.
Future Professional Potential: Role Player off the bench