Denver Nuggets: Playing buy or sell with 2019 free agents

Trey Lyles

The Nuggets traded for Lyles after his second season with the Utah Jazz in hopes that he could level out his 3-point shooting. After shooting well in his first season with the team (38.1 percent from 3-point range), he bottomed out during the 2018-19 campaign with a 25.5 percent mark. In addition to his poor shooting, he’s never been better than a bench player on the defensive end of the floor.

Lyles’ career Box Plus/Minus sits at a -2.4. He doesn’t give the team a positive impact when he’s on the floor, and he doesn’t play well with Jokic, which is a prerequisite to having rotation minutes in Denver. The team operates around the Joker, and, if Lyles has shown that he isn’t a good fit with him, he won’t be kept around.

Lyles is a restricted free agent this offseason, so the Nuggets could hypothetically match any offer sheet that he signs. However, they may just rescind his qualifying offer to allow him to become an unrestricted free agent. Doing that would allow Juancho to receive more minutes, and Lyles doesn’t appear to be a long-term piece for the team anyway. He could very easily be gone for next season.

Verdict: Sell