Ulis tries to beat odds by making Warriors’ roster
During his two seasons at Kentucky, Tyler Ulis saw signs in opposing student sections telling him that he still needed a booster seat, nap time and the kid’s menu.
What those rival fans failed to realize, however, was that the 5-foot-10 guard had long stopped letting jokes about his height bother him. If anything, he was emboldened by the fact that he hadn’t let his diminutive frame limit his ambition.
Even now, with his NBA career on life support, Ulis is keeping perspective. This is a player who was a high-school varsity starter as a 5-foot-3 freshman, was the first sub-6footer to suit up for Kentucky in nearly 50 years and almost became the shortest firstround pick since Muggsy Bogues in 1987. By comparison, the idea of making the Warriors’ roster off an Exhibit 10 contract doesn’t seem so farfetched.
“I was a little surprised, but I understand you have to take things as they come,” Ulis, 22, said of getting waived by the Suns in June. “It’s a business. This hasn’t been the worst step in my journey. Things could be a lot worse.”
In his two years with Phoenix, Ulis left little doubt that he is an NBA-caliber player, starting 58 games and boasting an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.7to-1. With the Suns in full tankmode, he averaged 15.3 points and 7.3 assists over last season’s final 10 games.
But after Phoenix cut him to free up salary-cap space, Ulis fielded no guaranteed contract offers. Last week, after nearly three months without a team, he chose Golden State over Exhibit 10 contracts from Houston and Sacramento.
Under the Exhibit 10, a new type of deal in the NBA’s latest collective bargaining agreement, Ulis would receive a bonus of up to $50,000 if he signs a contract with the Warriors’ G League affiliate after being waived by the parent club. If he impresses Golden State’s front office in preseason, his Exhibit 10 contract can be converted to the team’s lone remaining two-way contract by the start of the regular season.
Unlike 5-9 point guards Nate Robinson and Isaiah Thomas, who use their speed and quickness to create separation and score in bunches, Ulis relies on his vision, leadership and basketball IQ to lead an offense. Though he shot 38.8 percent from the field last season, he is a pick-and-roll threat adept at getting teammates the ball in spots where they can score quickly.
As a sophomore at Kentucky, Ulis broke the school’s season assist record set six years earlier by John Wall. That April, after watching him be named SEC Player of the Year, SEC Defensive Player of the Year and Bob Cousy Award winner, head coach John Calipari called Ulis “the best floor general (Kentucky) had since I’ve coached.” In other words, Calipari put Ulis’ ability to orchestrate an offense above that of Wall, Brandon Knight and Eric Bledsoe.
The question is whether Ulis will have a chance to showcase his playmaking on the Warriors.
With the team’s preseason opener Saturday against Minnesota, he is behind Stephen Curry, Shaun Livingston and Quinn Cook on the depth chart. Ulis’ dimensions make it tough for him to play anything other than point guard, and Golden State has a number of players — Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant — who can sub as secondary ball-handlers.
Interested in adding wing depth, Golden State invited swingmen Marcus Derrickson, Danuel House Jr., Alfonzo McKinnie and Kendrick Nunn to training camp. The odds of one of those four securing the team’s available two-way contract only spike if Patrick McCaw, who has yet to sign his qualifying offer of $1.7 million, continues to hold out.
Such long odds hardly faze Ulis, however. Defying expectations has become his specialty.
“I understand this team has won two championships in a row, but my time will come,” Ulis said. “I just have to wait it out, grind and work on my game.”