Tyler Ulis has risen up draft boards with his play as of late. The 5-9 Kentucky point guard was just awarded the SEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors en route to leading his Wildcats to an SEC tournament championship. In a draft full of divisive players, Ulis is just another name that will have split opinions come draft night. Upside and Motor’s Chris Stone and Austin Peters discussed what his stock might look like heading into workouts.
Austin (@apete1993): I brought up Tyler Ulis mainly because I’ve grown to love his game as the year has gone on. To me, the only thing negative about him that people can say is that he is small. He defends, he runs an offense, he can shoot. He was the best player on a Kentucky that was loaded with NBA prospects. Before the season started, it was a debate on whether the kid should get drafted. Now, I’m wondering if I’m the Bulls, and I just miss the playoffs, why not take Tyler Ulis with my late lottery pick?
Chris (@cstonehoops): For a kid who played his high school basketball just outside of Chicago, going to the Bulls would seem to be a dream scenario for Ulis. I had him going to the Windy City in my most recent mock draft, although at that time the Bulls were picking 18.
Ulis is incredibly talented and possesses a great set of skills, but it’s hard to gloss over his size. At 5-9 (in shoes), Ulis would be one of the smallest point guards in the NBA. Last year, Nylon Calculus released average heights for each position. Ulis is a solid three inches smaller than the average height and doesn’t even make it to the 10th percentile. His 6-1 wingspan makes up a bit for his lack of height, but is still four inches below the average for NBA point guards. His standing reach suffers similarly. Given that few point guards Ulis’ size have succeeded in the NBA, what makes you think Ulis can overcome his physical stature?
Austin: I mainly think that a guy like Ulis can succeed more than most because he has everything but the size. If he were 6-0, we’d be talking about this guy as a top five pick for sure. I can’t think of one thing he doesn’t do well on the floor. He checks all the boxes of being a playmaker, elite defender, shooting range, handle, passing. When you watch him, you think he is the best player on the floor in every game. The way he commands attention and always keeps defenders guessing as to what he is going to do with the ball is awesome. There are some 5-9 guys who you watch and you can just tell they won’t make it in the league. Ulis looks the part of an NBA player with the way he plays even if he doesn’t look it with his size.
Chris: Sure, if Ulis were 6-0, we could have a different discussion, but he’s 5-9 and only 23 NBA players 5-9 and shorter have EVER been in the league according to a handy Wikipedia article on the shortest players in NBA history. The one guy currently in the league who’s successful at that size is Boston’s Isaiah Thomas who was taken with the last pick in the draft and is 25 pounds heavier than Ulis. This is all just an emphatic way to say that Ulis’ size is a pretty big concern in terms of what his ceiling is.
All of my size complaints aside, I really do like Ulis’ skill set. Like you said, he’s a great dribbler and passer. He does a masterful job probing against college defenses and he’s been a decent shooter in Lexington despite falling off a bit in that area this year. Basically, we’re betting on that skill set being good enough to make Ulis into more of an Isaiah Thomas rather than a Nate Robinson, right?
Chris: That’s a smart point about expectations, particularly in this draft class. There seem to be a lot of potential role players and not as many future All-Stars. If a team can get a solid rotation guy in the middle of the first round, that would be good value and I think we’re in agreement that Ulis can certainly be that in the NBA.