This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Watching Trey Lyles play NBA basketball is like raising a teenager: It's fun and it's frustrating, rewarding and ridiculous, encouraging and energy-sapping, all the while causing one to wonder what it is he will be when his body and brain — and his game — are fully formed.

They still are not.

At the start of his second year with the Jazz, the undulations en route are just part of the natural ride, a ride of growth that includes big offensive production one night and production that vaporizes the next. It includes an abundance of confidence in certain situations and an absence of anticipation in others.

"I'm learning," Lyles says. "I'm just trying to improve and work hard, trying to let the game come to me, trying to take advantage of my teammates putting me in positions to be successful."

The Canadian-born and Indiana-bred Jazz forward is no longer a teenager, having turned 21 on Saturday, a day on which the team traveled to New York City for the first of five road games against the Knicks, and then the Sixers, the Hornets, the Magic, and the Heat, but those growth plates are still shifting into place.

He gets this, acknowledges it, and because he knows the Jazz need him and his skills, he is in a rush to mature. Quin Snyder says one of the more unique elements to Lyles' trajectory, particularly on account of his laidback, easy-going demeanor, isn't that he's not bright or that he's not paying enough attention or that he's slacking off, rather, it's the opposite.

He's clinching up while thinking and trying too hard.

"When guys are intelligent and they care, they put a lot of pressure on themselves," Snyder says. "Sometimes it's better to tell Trey just to ease off, to let some of the air out of the balloon."

At the same time, Snyder wants more oomph out of Lyles at both ends of the floor, allowing his obvious offensive skills to flow while increasing his defensive effort.

"Trey's a talented offensive player," Snyder says. "He can do things that are unique. He can pass. He can shoot. He can hit the mid-range and three-point shot. [But] he needs to read a situation before he gets the ball. I want him to have an idea of what he's going to do beforehand, so the ball doesn't stick. He's conscious of that. I want the emphasis to be on his reads.

"On defense, he has to come out determined and aggressive. If he's behind his man in the post, that's not what we want. We want him in front. We want him to get physically stronger and hold his ground. Not just to absorb contact, but to not get pushed out of the way.

"I see him continuing to improve."

That's what he did for most of his rookie season, showing tantalizing glimpses as he bumped and skidded at times before grasping more of what Snyder wanted.

"It's a pretty big jump when you go from playing against 18, -19-, 20-year-olds and now you're going against 30-year-old men who have played in the league a long time," Lyles said at the end of last season. "That's different. I've just had to learn and stay prepared. At the beginning, everything was faster, but once you get used to it, you get a little more confortable. You start to understand what you're supposed to do, and then it slows down and you can process it a little better."

And sometimes it speeds back up.

It is an ongoing, ascending journey, after starting in earnest back at Arsenal Tech, a high school in Indianapolis where Lyles, during his senior season, won an Indiana state championship and thereafter was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball. He spent a single season at Kentucky, mostly playing out of position — small forward — for the Wildcats before bolting for the NBA, when he was taken 12th in the 2015 draft by the Jazz.

Nobody's sure where Lyles' apex sits, whether he will become a star or a complementary player — he averaged 6.1 points, 3.7 rebounds in just more than 17 minutes a game last season and thus far this year is getting 6.5 points and 4.5 boards — but he has revealed enough to stir projections of promise. Certainly, he can fit in with this particular group of teammates, and they concur.

Says Derrick Favors: "He's improved a lot. He helps us with his offense, with the perimeter shot and the one-dribble pull up. He's definitely making us a tougher team."

Says Rudy Gobert: "He's getting better defensively and that's what we need. On offense, he spaces the floor. Defenses are going to have to respect him. He's still learning, he's so young. He's working hard, so I think he'll turn out to be a good player."

Lyles agrees.

"I always thought I could be good," he says. "Now, I just want to get better and help our team win."

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on the Zone Sports Network, 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson