NBA
#24 – Tyler Lydon – Denver Nuggets
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
After moving down from the 13th slot and obtaining Trey Lyles from the Jazz in return for the swap, the Denver Nuggets selected former Syracuse sophomore Tyler Lydon with the 24th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Lydon, an All-ACC Honorable Mention last year for Syracuse, adds another bit of intrigue to what’s now a packed young frontcourt in Denver. Lyles and Lydon join foreign upstarts Nikola Jokic and Juancho Hernangomez, and the Nuggets will now have a number of potential options with their big lineups. Jokic and Hernangomez both provide shooting, and while Lyles struggled badly here as a sophomore in Utah, it’s what he was drafted for.
Lydon, on the other hand, is a bit more of a mixed bag. He’s a strong spot-up shooter who also did a bit of everything for the Orange. Whether he can translate defensively to the NBA will be a big question, like many Syracuse prospects, and the Nuggets are still lacking a sure-thing defensive presence on the back line. But few of those were really available at this slot, and Lydon is another shot at a stretchy, intelligent player who can fit within a deep roster. He’ll need work when smart defenses close out hard to his spot-up looks and force him to put the ball on the floor, but there won’t be a lot of pressure on him for the first couple years with the Nuggets. This is a smart pick to add to a growing stockpile for the Nuggets.
