Phoenix Suns: Tyler Ulis Is Quickly Finding His NBA Footing

Rookie point guard Tyler Ulis has made the most of his opportunities since the All-Star break, proving himself as a hot young commodity for the Phoenix Suns.

Since the All-Star break, the Phoenix Suns have taken a different approach to another season without a playoff appearance. Though the franchise would love to end its soon-to-be seven-year postseason drought, there’s been a clear shift in minutes with the Suns dwelling in the cellar of the Western Conference.

To that end, Alex Len was moved into the starting lineup over Tyson Chandler, who has yet to play a single minute since All-Star Weekend. Alan Williams has played the most out of any center on the roster, D-League call-up Derrick Jones Jr. is playing rotation minutes and Brandon Knight has joined Tyson as a permanent fixture on the bench.

Williams looks like a real NBA player and the 20-year-old Jones has shown flashes of potential at 20 years old, but some of the greatest promise over the last week comes in the form of 5’10” backup point guard, Tyler Ulis.

As a second round pick for the Suns in last year’s draft, Ulis hasn’t gotten many opportunities in his rookie season. He spent the early portion of the year adjusting to the NBA level, and as Phoenix fruitlessly chased wins by riding its veterans, Knight kept the 21-year-old floor general tethered to the bench.

It’s no surprise that Ulis’ season averages — 3.7 points, 1.8 assists and 0.7 steals per game on .412/.333/.864 shooting splits — don’t have him on a lot of people’s radars outside the greater Phoenix area.

Overlooking this undersized facilitator would be a mistake, however, especially with how well he’s played upon being given the chance to prove himself in extended minutes.

Friday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Ulis submitted his finest performance as a pro so far, finishing with a career-high 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, seven assists, four rebounds and three steals in his 20 minutes of action.

He was assertive in looking for his shot, manipulated the defense time and time again to set up his teammates for easy buckets and hounded OKC’s point guards up and down the floor.

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“I thought Ty did a great job changing the game, picking up full court defensively,” head coach Earl Watson said.

Though Westbrook finished with 48 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists on the night, a hodgepodge trio of Eric Bledsoe, Tyler Ulis and Derrick Jones Jr. changed the course of the game by applying constant pressure, increasing the tempo and eventually forcing Russ to try and do it all by himself.

This wasn’t just an isolated incident, however. Friday night’s game followed up a similarly encouraging performance against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday, in which Ulis was a difference-maker off the bench with his defense on another All-Star point guard.

"“Someone just asked me this, ‘These young guys play so uncool,’” Watson said. “There’s no ‘cool’ way to win in this league and I love it. Tyler Ulis doesn’t care about picking up full court, it’s not the most attractive thing, you don’t get a highlight for it, but somehow Kemba Walker got tired.”"

Since the Suns’ complete shift in focus to the youth, Ulis has averaged 7.8 points, 5.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game on .485/.333/1.000 shooting splits. That’s a small five-game sample size, but he’s posted a +2.8 point differential and the Suns have been competitive in every game except the Memphis rout.

It’s probably no coincidence that the Suns’ assist numbers have shot through the roof in that small timeframe, with Ulis being a far better facilitator than a score-first backup like Knight.

In his last three games, Ulis has tallied 22 assists to only five turnovers. The Suns, meanwhile, have averaged 26.6 assists per game as a team since the All-Star break — the third highest mark in the NBA.

For reference, the league-leading Golden State Warriors average 30.8 assists per game. Before the break, the Suns were averaging 18.6 assists per game — the lowest figure in the association.

“Post-All-Star break you’ll see another rise [in offense] because of the way we’re getting assists,” Watson explained. “And that’s just Tyler Ulis coming off the bench, making it happen.”

Ulis doesn’t deserve all the credit for Phoenix’s newfound offensive flow, as the team’s new second unit of Ulis, Leandro Barbosa, Derrick Jones Jr., Jared Dudley and Alan Williams has inexplicably dominated its competition:

With two savvy, selfless veterans like Dudley and Barbosa leading a trio of hungry young players looking to prove themselves, the Suns’ second unit has been the difference in the last two games.

Some of those games came against the struggling Hornets, a Bucks team missing Jabari Parker and a pedestrian Bulls squad, but even against the Grizzlies and Thunder, the reserves’ chemistry has been remarkable.

Aside from the young point guard’s ability to bend defenses and trick larger defenders into over-committing one way or the other, Ulis and Williams’ chemistry stands out in particular.

Ulis says nothing has changed for him in his approach off the bench, but now that he’s getting his opportunities, his chemistry with the rest of the second unit is helping him thrive in those extended minutes.

"“It’s about experience and early in the season I didn’t get much, but when I did I tried to make the most of my opportunity,” he said. “I learned from Bled, learned from Brandon and now that I’ve played four or five games straight, I’m starting to get in better rhythm and our group is starting to get in better rhythm with each other, recognizing how each other plays.”"

Over the last three games, Ulis has put up 10.3 points, 7.3 assists and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 54.5 percent from the field and six-for-six from the line. Again, that’s a small sample size, but his +6.3 point differential speaks to a larger truth: At 21 years old, Tyler Ulis has already supplanted the once-promising Brandon Knight in the rotation, and he’s absolutely earned it.

Early in the season, Watson said he had to talk to Ulis about not hesitating and just playing his game despite being an undersized rookie still trying to adjust to the next level. With the passage of time and a little more experience under his belt, that message appears to have sunk in.

Ulis’ size may always make him a potential liability on the defensive end, especially against point guards capable of capitalizing on that advantage in the post. But for a player who was projected to be little more than a backup floor general in this league, Ulis is suddenly looking like a Suns guard capable of dictating tempo, reading defenses and causing havoc off the bench.

“Any time you’ve got a pace-setter out there like Tyler Ulis, sprinting up and down the floor, pressuring the ball, heckling the ball, it creates energy and a fast pace,” Williams said.

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It’s too early to say whether Ulis is a starting-caliber point guard let along a future franchise point guard, but with court vision, shot creation and tempo management well beyond his years, this second round draft pick is quickly finding his NBA footing.