Recently, the NBA season wrapped up with the crowning of the Golden State Warriors as the 2015 Champions. Fast Forward seven days, and the NBA draft has come and gone as well. For some Jazz fans, it felt like Christmas in June, and it came exactly six months before the actually Christmas day on December 25th.
With the 12th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, the Utah Jazz selected Trey Lyles of Kentucky University. Lyles was born in Saskatoon, Canada but played his high school ball in Indiana. As a senior in high school, Lyles averaged 23 points, 12.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. As the 6th best prospect coming out of high school according to ESPN, Lyles earned Mr. Indiana basketball of 2014 and chose to attend Kentucky over Louisville.
The 6’10 forward will bring a unique set of talents to Utah. Although he played the #3 position in college, he projects as a #4 in the NBA. Dennis Lindsey, Utah Jazz General Manager, even said that he thinks Lyles can play the 5 like Draymond Green did for the Warriors this past season.
Lyles posted to his Instagram (@treymamba41) late Thursday night, “Dreams do come true!!! Thank you Utah Jazz!! #BLESSED” in obvious excitement for being drafted into the NBA. At just 19 years old, born Nov. 5th 1995, Lyles will be the 2nd youngest Jazz player, just four months the junior of last year’s 5th overall pick, Dante Exum.
Mark Spears writer for Yahoo! Sports gave the Jazz an A+ rating with the #12 pick of Trey Lyles. The new rookie is expected to play in the Utah Jazz summer league held at the Energy Solutions Areana starting July 6th and will wear number 41.
With the 42nd pick in the NBA draft, the Utah Jazz selected Olivier Hanlan out of Boston College. Hanlan was born in Aylmer, Quebec and played his junior and senior year of high school basketball in New Hampshire.
Hanlan is a 6’4 combo guard who can score, pass and rebound well for his size. Hanlan measured with a 6’6 1/2 wingspan at the NBA combine, which will give him the ability to play defense on the one and two in the NBA.
Hanlan averaged 19.5 points per game on 45% from the field and 35% from the three in his junior year of college. He also averaged 4.2 assists per game, as well as 4.2 rebounds per game.
Oliver Hanlan is expected to come in and play the summer league with the Utah Jazz and compete for a roster spot with last years D-League call up Bryce Cotton. An advantage that Hanlan has is his height. At 6’4, he is versatile in today’s NBA.
However, don’t expect it to be one or the other on the final roster as the Utah Jazz have to fill up at least 12 spots, and typically, they use all 15 available roster spots allowed by the NBA.
At this time before free agency looms, the Jazz will roll out Dante Exum, Trey Burke, Alec Burks, Rodney Hood, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, Trevor Booker and Grant Jerrett while they hold non-guaranteed contracts to Elijah Millsap, Bryce Cotton, Chris Johnson and Jack Cooley.
While Joe Ingles and Jeremy Evens are impending free agents, neither are a guarantee to be back next year. The Jazz also hold the rights to Raul Neto, drafted 47th overall in the 2013 draft; Tibor Pleiss, who was acquired in the Enes Kanter trade and Ante Tomic, who was drafted 44th in 2008 but just signed a new three-year deal with his club F.C. Barcelona.
The Utah Jazz will also play in the Las Vegas Summer League and the preseason will kick off in early October while the regular season starts in late October.
