Due to the lockout, the 2012 Summer League was Jeremy Tylers first opportunity to really showcase himself against younger players. He started the final 23 games in 2011-12, averaging over 20 minutes a game against veteran NBA centers. So five games in Las Vegas should have been Tylers coming out party as a young talent on the rise.
Not so much. Instead, Tyler barely averaged more minutes in summer league (15.5 mpg) than he did all of last season (13.5) for the Warriors. He fouled at a high rate -- 7.74 fouls per 40 minutes which would have put him second behind Larry Sanders among qualified NBA centers last season according to Hoopdata.com. That number is also worse than his rookie season total (5.9 fouls per 40 minutes).
He also continued some alarming shooting and rebounding trends. His defensive rebounding rate last season was 17.1 which put him 55th among 67 qualified centers. His defensive rebounding rate in four Summer League games was 5.06 -- meaning he collected around 5 percent of the available rebounds while he was on the floor.
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His shooting numbers did improve in his four games in Las Vegas, but not to the desired level of an NBA center. Last season, he shot 42.1 percent from the field, but in his 23 starts, that number dropped to 41.2 percent. Those shooting numbers put him in the bottom 10 in the league among qualified centers. In four summer league games, he shot 45.0 percent from the field which was partially saved by a 6-10 game against Miami. For some context, the league average among centers last season was 50.3 percent.
Tyler is a below average, but not a terrible finisher around the rim. According to Hoopdata.com, his 58.5 FG percent at the rim in his rookie season was about 6 percentage points below league average for centers. His shooting really suffered when he moved any distance from the basket. A little over half his shots per game were from 3 to 23 feet away from the basket where he shot a measly 28.6 percent.
The caveat with all Summer League analysis is the incredibly small sample size, but seeing the same alarming trends out of a player after three-and-a-half months of offseason workout time is not encouraging. Coming into this season it will be interesting to see if Tyler sees any time behind Andrew Bogut, Andris Biedrins, and Festus Ezeli.
For the sake of this analysis, 10-plus games played at 10-plus minutes per game will qualify a player.