So he’s not LeBron James.
But is Trey Lyles the next best thing? It’s entirely possible! We’ve seen the beating he’s put on the Wolves in recent years, but for those who wiped their memories opted out of watching any Kings games the past three to four years, I decided to find out more about the 30-year-old.
Lyles’ last NBA stint was with Sacramento from 2022 to 2025. Joining me is The Kings Herald’s Will Griffith. He has covered the Sacramento Kings closely for over 10 years and hosts The Kings Herald podcast,
a bi-weekly podcast about the Kings.
Will graciously spent some time with me to talk about the Wolves ninth-ish man in the rotation:
Leo Sun: First and foremost, a big congratulations to you for surviving another season of the Sacramento Kings. That’s no small feat! You’ve watched and covered god knows how many years of dysfunction there. You’ve also seen a lot of players come and go along the way. The Wolves signed Trey Lyles to a veteran minimum contract last week. His last NBA stint was with the Kings, where he played over three seasons. How would you summarize his time in Sacramento?
Will Griffith: Trey Lyles’ time in Sacramento was a mostly positive experience that was hindered pretty much only by his injuries and subsequent lack of availability. Beam Team season Lyles was looking like he’d quickly be an all-time role player fan favorite – a great locker room vibes guy, who spread the floor, opened the lanes for Fox to spray out to and could, on occasion, give you small-ball center time without being a total sieve out there.
After that, there’s a LOT of “What If?” when it comes to Trey. ‘23-24 was a season where the Kings were doing everything to keep their heads above water, Trey missed 24 games with a calf injury that lingered all season and then eventually an MCL sprain. His numbers were similar enough when he played but he just never quite looked right.
That third full season was a shit show franchise, with a civil war in the locker room and Trey on the losing side and I really do think that the eventual firing of Mike Brown, trading of De’Aaron Fox, promotion of Doug Christie to head coach and the lack of a point guard really killed what was left of the positivity that Lyles brought to the team. He was a professional, never spoke out of turn, but Kings fans in the know understood that Lyles was gone as soon as De’Aaron Fox was.
Sun: That’s great context to know. A good basketball player. Injury worries. Inter-team drama. Sounds like a Timberwolf to me! So you mentioned his basketball ability briefly. Can you expand a little more about his greatest strength(s) and weakness(es) on the court? Or if it’s easier, is there a player comparison that comes to mind?
Griffith: There isn’t a great deal of mystery with Trey. He’s a good-to-very-good shooter when healthy, he’ll pull down rebounds at a healthy level and he won’t make a lot of mistakes. He’s a below average defender, but not a pushover.
I don’t have a player comp for him but I’d say as someone looking from the outside, I’d rather Lyles than a guy like Kyle Anderson. He’s in Minnesota to eat minutes while the starters are resting and he’ll do just that, and with flying colors. If at any point in the season, he’s expected to be anything more than a pinch starter for you for a game or two, I’d start to get a little worried.
Sun: We don’t tolerate SlowMo slander here at Canis. You’ve been warned. Alright, well floor spacing is an absolute must for this iteration of the team, so that sounds like a good start. However, did he ever have any frustrations in a limited bench role as a 7th-8th man? Now that he may be in a even more limited 8th-9th man role for the Wolves, do you think he could grow discontent?
Griffith: I have zero worries about that from Trey Lyles, especially after coming back to the NBA and to a very good professional situation in Minnesota, after a nice season with Real Madrid. Trey’s a good locker room guy and I have only good things to say about him in terms of his personality and his fit with the Wolves.
Remember: his last NBA experience was with a Sacramento Kings squad with more pressure and ego, and less logic leading it than the OceanGate submersible. If Trey left without incident there, he’ll be fine in this franchise’s more than capable hands.
Sun: That’s good to hear. If things went so well there in Sacramento, then why did his time come to an end?
Griffith: The business answer: the Kings knew they were going into a rebuild and Trey is very much a complimentary piece on a team with playoff or championship aspirations.
The more complicated, but just as truthful follow-up? He was a Fox guy and every single Fox guy outside of Keegan Murray was purged as quickly as possible from the Kings franchise. He would have been a perfectly fine vet for a bad Kings squad, his loyalties, however, weren’t toward the right Kings star.
Sun: Is that “Kings star” in the room with us, right now? Sorry, low blow. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a John Calipari Kentucky Wildcats connection between Fox and Lyles. Well, let’s move past that and focus on the now. How do you like Trey’s fit with this Timberwolves roster, existing as one of the few bigs on the team?
Griffith: In a limited, clearly understood role off the bench? I love it. He won’t replace Naz Reid, but he will fit in, hit open shots, and provide the spacing that LaMelo and Ant need. He won’t wow you on defense, but his rebounding is a little underrated and he can give you some minutes as a small ball five. As a 7th-9th guy, he’s perfect for LaMelo and Ant.
Sun: This is the second time you’ve mentioned his defense. It’s a perfect segue for my next topic: the Wolves recent success as been synonymous with their excellent defensive acumen. You already foreshadowed your answer, but just how would you sum up Trey Lyles on that end of the court?
Griffith: Underwhelming. He’s a touch slow, not an eyepopping athlete, so he won’t be blocking many shots. He’ll put a body on someone and try, but he’s not making an All-Defensive Team any time soon.
Sun: I guess that’s fair, considering he’s a 30-year-old NBA journeyman on a vet minimum. What about the intangibles? Was Lyles a good “veteran presence” in the locker room, or have much of a voice? The Wolves recently lost Mike Conley and Kyle Anderson in free agency, and only have 1 player over 30 on the team. Lyles would be the only other.
Griffith: I’d say Lyles is a good vet presence but not overly loud or showy with it. It was obvious that he was well liked by his teammates and press and had zero off-the-court issues in his time in Sac. When times are good, he’ll be very popular with his teammates, he just isn’t giving you the Captain America hype moments during a seven-game losing streak.
Sun: There’s going to be a lot of loud personalities in that Wolves locker room, so it might behoove Minnesota to have that calm presence. Well, let’s wrap up with this: if there’s something Wolves fans should know about Lyles, what would it be?
Griffith: In the Mike Brown years, the Kings would hand out a Defensive Player of the Game chain and crown and the whole team would take a picture, and Trey, no matter where he was in the picture, flashed fours on his hands. It took all of like 3 games into the gimmick where the entire team was hitting this pose, holding four fingers out on each hand, and despite a lot of bad times in the seasons that followed, he was well regarded enough that players still held up 4’s out of love for him. On the off chance that the Wolves suddenly have a gimmick like that, or start popping locker room pictures after the game, Trey will throw up those 4’s and you will ask yourself, what the hell does that even mean?
It means “4 Life”. It was just a thing he started in high school and has kept it going ever since.
Sun: Wow, that’s some Adam Silver stuff right there. I love that story and it’s cool to get to know a little bit more about the end of bench addition. Here’s to hoping he’s a likeable big man that can help us “rebound” from the loss of Naz Reid.
Again, I can’t thank Will enough for the conversation. You can find his content on the Kings Herald website, or on BlueSky/Twitter.
