NBA Free Agent Trey Lyles Signs With Real Madrid

NBA free agent center Trey Lyles is finalizing a one-year contract worth $3 million with Real Madrid, agent Rich Paul confirmed to Marc Stein of The Stein Line on Thursday.

Trey Lyles Has Played 10 NBA Seasons

Lyles was selected 12th overall by the Utah Jazz in the 2015 NBA draft out of the University of Kentucky. He spent two seasons with the Jazz before the team traded him to the Denver Nuggets for Donovan Mitchell in June 2017.

The 6-foot-9 wing played a couple of seasons with Denver before signing deals with the San Antonio Spurs in July 2019 and then the Detroit Pistons in August 2021.

Lyles, who turns 30 in November, has spent the past three-plus seasons with the Sacramento Kings. In 69 appearances (five starts) with the Kings last season, he averaged 6.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 19.6 minutes per game.

The former first-rounder helped a Sacramento team win 48 games to secure the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference in 2022-23, ending the longest playoff drought in league history after 16 consecutive losing seasons.

Although Lyles didn’t attract much NBA interest on the open market this offseason, he was reportedly linked to the Miami Heat last month. The Heat, however, decided to re-sign Dru Smith shortly after that story broke.

Real Madrid Officially Lyles’ First Overseas Signing

Lyles has mostly been a rotation reserve throughout his career.

According to Basketball Reference, in 650 career NBA regular-season games (131 starts), Lyles has averaged 7.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 18.4 minutes per contest while shooting 44.1% from the field and 34.7% from beyond the arc.

This will be Lyles’ first signing with a European club, per Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com.

Real Madrid won both the regular season and playoffs of the Liga ACB last season, but the team was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the EuroLeague playoffs.

The team’s roster features several former NBA players like Chuma Okeke, Theo Maledon, and Mario Hezonja.

Real Madrid has won 38 Spanish league championships and 11 EuroLeague titles.