Trey Lyles may be the quiet addition in Minnesota, but he brings something the Timberwolves’ other bigs don’t.
That point came through clearly when Britt Robson of the MinnPost asked Chris Finch about Lyles during a sit-down interview. Finch didn’t sound ready to pencil him into a huge nightly workload - “Uh…I don’t see a 22-minute-a-night role,” Finch said.
“Too early to say. But one thing I do like about Trey, he is the skilled big category not just because of his ability to make a three.
What I really like is his attacking on close-outs. He can make good decisions out there."
That skill set matters because it separates Lyles from the other bigs on the Timberwolves’ roster.
Lyles arrives in Minnesota after 10 NBA seasons and a year overseas in Spain. He’s naturally a power forward, but he can also slide to center when Rudy Gobert or Joan Beringer can’t go. That flexibility gives the Wolves a different look, especially when they want more shooting on the floor.
Lyles has never been a volume bomber, but he’s taken just shy of three 3-pointers per game in his NBA career and made 34.7 percent of them. That’s enough to keep defenses honest, which is more than can be said for Gobert.
The next 3-pointer Gobert hits will be the first of his career. Beringer didn’t attempt one as a rookie, either with Minnesota or the Iowa Wolves.
Minnesota has been comfortable leaning on stretch bigs before, from Karl-Anthony Towns to Naz Reid. Julius Randle wasn’t the most accurate from deep, but he was willing to let it fly. Lyles fits into that mold more naturally than the other current options and could open the door to some five-out lineups.
Jonathan Kuminga, who is set to start at power forward, brings a different profile. He’s shooting 33.2 percent from 3-point range for his career, stands 6-foot-7, and doesn’t take threes at the same rate as the bigger players mentioned here.
For Lyles to carve out a steady role, the outside shot has to hold up. He has reached at least 38.1 percent from 3-point range in four seasons, but he’s also finished no better than 32.1 percent in three others.
Finch’s point about closeouts is just as important. Gobert and Beringer don’t get many chances to attack defenders rushing at them from the perimeter because neither one stretches the floor in the first place.
So the path to minutes isn’t exactly clear for Lyles on a roster with plenty of bodies ahead of him. Still, he does have a couple of traits no other Minnesota big can claim, and that should earn him chances as the season unfolds.
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