JuMu's Jazzmen Previews: #10 Trey Lyles

Today we begin our journey into the top 10.

In case you did not get a chance to see it, go ahead and take a look at every player who missed my cut for the top 10 Jazz players this upcoming season HERE

Last Year's Projected #10: Jeremy Evans (His Post)

Last year, I projected Jeremy Evans to be the 10th best player on the Jazz last season, and unfortunately he didn't even get enough playing time (only 266 minutes!) last year to come in as a top 10 player for the Jazz.

Hopefully this year, this top 10 projected player for the Jazz gets the opportunities to showcase his skills and develop into a future cog of this team's system.

Without further ado,

#10. Trey Lyles, Rookie, 19 years old, 6'10", 241 pounds, SF

Source: Getty Images

Backstory:

Trey Lyles was born in Saskatchewan, Canada back in November 1995. He lived on the syrup-side of the border until his family moved to Indiana (where he would go on to play high school ball) when he was 7 years old.

He's represented both the U.S. and Canada, but since his junior year of high school has played for Canada in international play. He averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds while helping lead Canada to 6th place in the 2013 FIBA under 19 World Championships.

Coming out of high school, ESPN scouts had him ranked as the 6th best prospect of the class of 2014 (notably above fellow Kentucky teammate Karl-Anthony Towns).

On a stacked Kentucky team, Trey Lyles was not forced to be a dominant scorer, but rather fit into John Calipari's smooth system.

Trey was 6th in points per game for Kentucky last season at 8.7, which may sound underwhelming, but that's just how balanced this team was, as their leading scorer Aaron Harrison only averaged 11 points.

Lyles was also 3rd in rebounds per game for Kentucky at 5.2 with fellow lottery bigs Karl-Anthony Towns (6.7) and Willey Cauley-Stein (6.3) in front.

Lyles shot 48.8% from the field, 13.8% from 3, and 73.5% from the line while championing a 19.8 PER, 54.3 TS%,  4.4 WS, and a 8.9 Box Plus/Minus.

Kentucky made it to the Final 4 before being knocked out by Wisconsin.

In the 2015 draft, Kentucky's crazy talented roster went on to have 6 players drafted, and a shocking 4 of them in the lottery! Towns was picked 1st, Cauley-Stein 6th, Lyles 12th, and Devin Booker 13th. It will be interesting tracking each of these teammate's progress in the big leagues.

To those who have not gotten a chance to see much of Lyles, engorge yourself in what he did in summer league:

What to Expect This Season:

Source: Getty Images

Projecting Trey Lyles this season is not the easiest assignment. He's a lottery pick, can fit into a nice team system like the Jazz's fairly easily but probably won't end up with many wowing stats for the season. Maybe just a handful of breakout games, but even that is no guarantee.

Unless, injuries, trades, or unexpected development occur, it appears that Lyles will be a 3rd stringer scraping for a consistent role with Booker and Favors ahead of him in the Power Forward pecking order while Hayward and either of Ingles or Hood could easily be playing ahead of Lyles at the backup Small Forward position.

Drafting Lyles may not have been a sexy pick, but it does appear to align with the Jazz's long-term focused plan of being able to maintain a playoff-capable young core with many backup choices in case we are not able to keep all of our roster together in the future.

With that said, this is what I would project Trey Lyles' rookie season to end up being somewhere in this ballpark:

G	MP	FGA	FG%	FT%	TRB	AST	PTS	PER	WS	BPM	VORP
50	16.0	4	0.470	0.750	3.0	1.0	7.0	10.0	1.0	0.0	0.0

It would be great for the Jazz, if Lyles defied the odds and surprised everyone from the get go, making Booker expendable and allowing the Jazz to possibly trade for a top 10 point guard to help get us closer to contender-status. However, realistically the odds are against that happening.

Lyles is not a good 3 point shooter, but he slashes and cuts well with foul-drawing prowess. He is a modest rebounder but overall his offensive game (barring development) is going to be really dependent on the Jazz running plays that suit his fluid cuts to the rim.

He does possess nice ball handling skills for a 6-10 player (with a near 7-4 wingspan!) and Quin should be able to find a way to utilize that strength.

Once Lyles does start contributing more regularly to this team, expect him to assume the role of X-factor on this team.

Lyles still has everything to be a perfectly above-average 12th pick though. I can imagine him being a key 3rd big a year or 2 down the line once Quin's system has evolved into the nightmare fuel playoff contender it is capable of being on the defensive end.

Conclusion:

Trey Lyles will be on the short end of the playing time stick early on in the season, but expect Lyles to be Favors' primary backup eventually. Depending on how fast he learns his role in the system and develops more NBA-level skills and aggressiveness, Lyles may become our team's 3rd big around All-Star break at the earliest with next season being the likeliest scenario.

Will Lyles become the Jazz's X-factor?

Chances of him being with the team in the 2016-2017 season:

40%