Utah Jazz Taking Advantage Of Nuggets Draft Night Trade
Jul 9, 2019, 1:42 PM
(Photo by Streeter Lecka and Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
(Photo by Streeter Lecka and Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – It was June 22, 2017 that changed the Utah Jazz franchise for hopefully the next 10 plus years when they made a trade with the Denver Nuggets.
The Denver Nuggets had the 13th overall pick in the draft and then-Jazz general manager made a trade, giving the Nuggets Trey Lyles and the 24th pick in exchange for the 13th pick.
The Nuggets selected Donovan Mitchell for Utah and the Jazz picked Tyler Lydon from Syracuse for Denver.
Two years later, Mitchell is a rising star in the NBA with a shoe deal with Adidas and has taken the Jazz to new heights after the departure of Gordon Hayward.
Denver’s end of the deal, that hasn’t panned out at all.
Lydon Gone
After signing a multi-year contract with the Nuggets on July 6, 2017, Lydon was assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G-League multiple times as a rookie. He was then assigned to the Capital City Go-Go of the G-League on March 3, 2019.
Now, Lydon is a free agent after the Nuggets decided to not retain his services.
In two seasons with the Nuggets, Lydon has appeared in 26 games, 1 game in the 2017-18 season and 25 last season. He has scored 23 points in two seasons for Denver and has a career NBA average of 0.9 points per game.
Lyles Gone
After the Nuggets acquired forward Jerami Grant from the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team decided to rescind the qualifying offer to Trey Lyles, making him an unrestricted free agent rather than a restricted free agent.
The Jazz selected Lyles with the 12th overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft out of Kentucky. He averaged 6.1 points per game in two seasons in Utah and 9.3 points per game in two seasons in Denver.
Also, Lyles can’t seem to handle three hour practices.
Seems like that trade between the #Jazz and #Nuggets worked out pretty well for Utah, right? #TakeNote #ThanksNuggets https://t.co/R5KEVavRs8
— Sam Farnsworth (@SFarnsworthKSL) July 8, 2019
It was obvious that Utah won the trade even when it first happened on draft night, but with the Nuggets parting ways with both players was a complete waste of a trade… for them.
