I mentioned this last year myself.
If you squint hard enough, Lyles is sort of the PF we’d be looking for next to Sabonis. Let’s review his attributes…
- Great size & length (6’9” w/o shoes with a 7’1.5” wingspan & a 9’0” standing reach)
- Good shooter (.363 3P% on 6.9 3PA per 36 min, .446 Corner 3P%, and .815 FT%
- Efficient role playing scorer (16.2 PTS per 36 min and .607 TS%)
- Good rebounder (8.7 REB per 36 min)
- Decent rim protector (0.9 BLK per 36 min)
- Okay defender
- Solid BBIQ
- Got a bit of an edge/toughness to him
In a vacuum, I don’t think he’s a better player than Barnes but I think his fit in the starting lineup (and more importantly next to Sabonis) could have a synergistic effect. He’s definitely much different from Barnes in terms of size/length, rim protection, rebounding, and edge/fire.
Barnes is the better iso scorer which we could take advantage of when Fox and/or Sabonis are off the floor and Barnes’ is matched up with weaker 2nd units. Monk and Barnes would be solid go-to scorers in a 2nd unit to help keep us afloat while Lyles brings some other attributes to the starting unit that we could really use.
You obviously have to sell Barnes on it, but when he was a kid, he did witness a starter level player in Iguodala accept a bench role on his Warriors team helping them win a championship (not to mention that Barnes doesn’t have to worry about being moved to the bench in a contract year).