Trey Lyles joined the Spurs late last offseason, after their plans of signing Marcus Morris went haywire. The expectations about him were understandably low, since he’d been inconsistent throughout his young career, but as an emergency signing to provide depth, he seemed adequate.
Instead, Lyles immediately emerged as a key piece for Gregg Popovich and ended up starting 53 of the 63 games for which he was active. There was nothing special or exciting about Lyles, but by simply providing good minutes at a position of need he more than earned the modest salary he was making.