Tyler Ulis News, Discussion and Highlights

[Walt_Uoob]

How is Darren Collison as a Ulis comparison? I haven't seen a ton of either but Collison always came to mind for me as another short PG who was an elite defender in college. But Collison's more of a scorer and less of a distributor / floor general? Are there other big differences?

[sunsbum]

SUMDUMFUNK WHERE????????

[jcsunsfan]

The closest analogy I can think of is Chris Paul. CP is more fluid and more of a personal offensive threat. But that would be closest in my mind.

[Saberestar]

Darren Collison is a good comp IMO.

Good player, borderline starter and he always plays a good number of minutes per game every season.

I think that Ulis is gonna be even better, we will see.

[NTB]

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2016/09/30/suns-notes-tyler-ulis-real-jared-dudley-nau/91331856/

“I immediately grabbed Tyler,” Suns coach Earl Watson said of their initial July encounter. “I said, ‘Listen, I don’t want you to be this pass-first, -second, -third, -fourth point guard. I want you to be the guy that we fell in love with Kentucky. You score. You assist. You can’t make that decision before the play happens. You dominate. I don’t care who’s in front of you. If you have to score 30, you score 30.’ I think he just ran with it.”

“It’s not just a summer league thing with Tyler,” Watson said. “It’s real.”

“His read for the game is really advanced,” Suns general manager Ryan McDonough said of Ulis. “He goes through his reads and progressions very quickly for a young guy. That’s pretty unusual.

“He’s got a high level knowledge of the game and feel for the game already at 20 years old.”

• Watson on Suns training camp: “Most teams come into training camp and they talk about chemistry. They talk about bonding. We started that in May. So right now, we’re into basketball.”

• Suns forward P.J. Tucker on his optimism despite external low expectations: “I’m confident because I see guys work. I believe in every guy on this team. It’s amazing to see these young guys come in and want to just get better and just learn. Nobody has an ego. Everybody’s just trying to learn to get better.”

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

[bwgood77]

Tyler Ulis credits his “personal chauffeur” with how smoothly he is adjusting to the NBA.

Ulis does not like driving, so he has Devin Booker, his best friend who lives in the same complex, for rides to and from Talking Stick Resort Arena and much more.

Booker’s first job with Ulis is best friend, a role he grew into after they met in eighth grade on the basketball club circuit. They chose Kentucky together, but Booker got a head start on a pro career by coming out a year earlier to set up his other self-described job for Ulis.

For more, check out piece here from Paul Coro... http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2016/10/28/tyler-ulis-nba-entry-helped-best-buddy-devin-booker/92911960/

[bwgood77]

I wanted to post this here too so it's not lost among old game threads in a couple of weeks when he hasn't played any more.

Watch on YouTube

[sunsfever68]

Should be a great backup PG for years to come.


Man if he were 6'2 he'd be a legit all star

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

[Qwigglez]

Watch on YouTube

[JDJ26]

Is he 5'9? It is his listed height but he looks shorter than 5'9 in game.

If he was 6'0 he could easily be the starting PG for the Suns. Maybe if he packed on some muscle he could be a starter.

[GMATCallahan]

Is he 5'9? It is his listed height but he looks shorter than 5'9 in game.

If he was 6'0 he could easily be the starting PG for the Suns. Maybe if he packed on some muscle he could be a starter.

"5'9" could mean "5'7 1/2" in real height (if not shorter). Then they will tack on an extra inch for his sneakers and round up—that is often how matters work in the NBA—and then some. Occasionally, players are two-to-to three inches shorter than their real heights. For instance, Ben Wallace, listed at 6'9", said that he was 6'7" (not counting the Afro, I guess). If one goes back and views the 1992 NBA Draft on TNT, one will see that when the Suns select center Oliver Miller, the network lists him at 6'7"; suddenly, a few weeks or months later, the Suns listed him at 6'9". When the late Wayman Tisdale played for his original NBA team, the Indiana Pacers, his listed height was 6'7". Later, including when he played for the Phoenix Suns, his listed height was 6'9".

Steve Nash's listed height was 6'3"—there is no way that he was 6'3". He said once, in 2007, that he was actually 6'2", which probably means that he was 6'1" and 1/2, which he then rounded up to 6'2", which then became 6'3" in sneakers. Likewise, Hakeem Olajuwon's listed height eventually became 7'0". In his 1995 memoir, Living the Dream, he wrote that he was actually 6'11", which probably meant that he was rounding up from 6'10" and 1/2 or so. The NBA listed both Dan Majerle and Michael Jordan at 6'6"; if one watches them in the 1993 NBA Finals, Majerle is clearly at least an inch taller, which makes sense because Jordan's actual height was around 6'4" and 1/2, something once indicated by one of his former college teammates at the University of North Carolina (in an address that I heard while I was in college).

A funny anecdote on this subject is that Kevin Johnson's listed height was 6'2" during his first two or three years in the NBA; then it became 6'1". He is one of the few players to ever "shrink" in the NBA ...

Of course, there are a few big men, such as Kevin Garnett, who deliberately choose to list themselves below their actual height, apparently to suggest to other teams that they should not be matched up at center or in a power role.

Anyway, Ulis could still be a viable point guard in the NBA at 5'7" or so; just how viable is uncertain.

[GMATCallahan]

Tyler Ulis credits his “personal chauffeur” with how smoothly he is adjusting to the NBA.

Ulis does not like driving, so he has Devin Booker, his best friend who lives in the same complex, for rides to and from Talking Stick Resort Arena and much more.

Booker’s first job with Ulis is best friend, a role he grew into after they met in eighth grade on the basketball club circuit. They chose Kentucky together, but Booker got a head start on a pro career by coming out a year earlier to set up his other self-described job for Ulis.

For more, check out piece here from Paul Coro... http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2016/10/28/tyler-ulis-nba-entry-helped-best-buddy-devin-booker/92911960/

... interesting.

[GMATCallahan]

I do not know who exactly Ulis best compares to overall. (Besides, the late Jim Morrison of The Doors once stated, correctly, that comparisons constitute an intellectual "shortcut" that chokes off "real thinking.") But he has a sort of perpetual quarter-or-half-in-and-out-dribble that is reminiscent of Kevin Johnson, Kyrie Irving, and Isaiah Thomas (the one who played for the Suns), meaning that like those guys, there is a constant deception to his dribble where he always seems like he might be on the verge of changing directions even when he is not and where he is constantly toying with his speed or pace.

Ulis is not going to score like any of those three guys, I am pretty sure. But he could be a significantly better playmaker than Irving (not hard to do) and Thomas.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

I think Ulis has an outside shot of being an all-star in this league. He sees the floor, he exploits any advantage our offense creates (as opposed to Bledsoe and Knight, who give up any advantage by gathering - I presume because they think that they themselves are the advantage) and is smart and disruptive on defense.

Warren needs to get his head out of his ***, and maybe Tyler can help. This team needs shot creation, and Tyler's the only one who seems to be able to do it for players other than himself.

Trade whomever you need to get this kid on the court. Let's really see what these youngsters can do.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

One more thing - how many minutes can Bled play next to the 2 with Ulis at the 1? Could we get away with that every game? Maybe that's what we look to do during the second half of the season.

[Bogyo]

One more thing - how many minutes can Bled play next to the 2 with Ulis at the 1? Could we get away with that every game? Maybe that's what we look to do during the second half of the season.

Bled is strong enough that we would "survive" 15ish minutes, but it s not a recepie for success to say the least. But hey, it's not like we re winning otherwise, so might as well try. Not for a regular solution, only to give Ulis regular playing time to improve.

[Saberestar]

Tyler Ulis discusses his impact on the Suns roster.

http://arizonasports.com/category/podcast_player/?a=328180&sid=1005&n=Burns+%26+Gambo

[GMATCallahan]

One more thing - how many minutes can Bled play next to the 2 with Ulis at the 1? Could we get away with that every game? Maybe that's what we look to do during the second half of the season.

In that alignment, I do not believe that there would be a clear "1/2" separation on offense. Given Bledsoe's superior status and his explosiveness off the dribble, I imagine that he would still function as a point guard often enough, with the goal being a two-point guard offense along the lines of what Phoenix featured three years ago with Bledsoe and Dragic. The ambition would to use the superior speed of Bledsoe and Ulis to attack on the break or in transition as much as possible, and otherwise work out of high ball-screens on either wing depending on the matchup, flow, or what shakes out of a given play. But Bledsoe as a "shooting guard" per se would only work, I imagine, if he was constantly curling off down-screens and being fed repeatedly.

The first scenario is more likely.

Of course, with Bledoe and Ulis, the Suns would be quicker than any back court in the game, and one option would be to repeatedly put the ball in the hands of whoever was being presently defended by the lesser or slower defender among the opponents' guards. Take this game from March 2, 1997, Jason Kidd's return to Dallas:

http://www.databasebasketball.com/teams/boxscore.htm?yr=1996&b=19970302&tm=DAL

When the Suns staged a second-half comeback from a 27-point deficit, they would put the ball in the hands of either Kevin Johnson or Jason Kidd depending upon who was being defended by Khalid Reeves, as opposed to Derek Harper (a longtime stalwart defender with great hands). Whoever was being defended by Reeves would orchestrate the offense and look to attack.

KJ and Kidd were sharing the ballhandling duties. Former University of Arizona guard Khalid Reeves was the key. "If Reeves was on me, I was the ballhandler," said KJ, who had 22 points and 10 assists. "If he was on Jason, it was Jason's job. That's just because Derek Harper has been around for so long as a great defensive player. Anyway, Reeves was on Jason at the end. I was going to try to score on the drive. But I tossed the ball to Jason, and everything fell into place." It sure did.

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/123817081/

Seeing something like that with Bledsoe and Ulis would be intriguing, and the Suns might as well experiment with that combination at some point, as you never know when lightning will strike. Of course, Bledsoe does not possess anywhere near the experience of a tenth-year Kevin Johnson or the basketball intelligence of an any-year Kevin Johnson, and Ulis does not enjoy nearly the experience of even a third-year Jason Kidd. Moreover, K.J. was 6'1" and Kidd was 6'3", and both were extremely strong. Bledsoe is also very strong at 6'1", but Ulis is, what, 5'7"? Hardly anyone posts up nowadays, anyway (let alone guards), but size can still make a difference in terms of contesting shots. Thus I would not expect the same kind of results, certainly, but when you are in last place, what do you have to lose?

Additionally, much like Johnson and Kidd, a Bledsoe-Ulis tandem could create some havoc defensively, which would help the Suns run more.