Utah Jazz alums: Tyrone Wallace gets deal in NOLA
By Ryan Aston
Former Utah Jazz draftee Tyrone Wallace will reportedly continue his NBA career in the birthplace of Jazz basketball.
Although there was little player movement on the Utah Jazz front this offseason, a bevy of former Jazzmen have found new homes throughout the summer. The whole of the team’s 2016 draft class, for example, have inked new deals around the globe.
In July, guard Marcus Paige entered a two-year pact with the Belgrade, Serbia-based Partizan BC; the same club that 2017 Jazz draftee Nigel Williams-Goss led into battle last season. One month later, big man Joel Bolomboy joined Andrei Kirilenko‘s old Russian club, CSKA Moscow. On Tuesday, guard Tyrone Wallace finally got his deal.
While his draft-mates are going across the pond, Wallace looks to be headed to the birthplace of Jazz. According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Wallace has agreed to an offer sheet with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Sources: Clippers restricted free agent Tyrone Wallace has agreed to an offer sheet with the New Orleans Pelicans. Clippers placed a two-way qualifying offer on Wallace and can match deal.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 3, 2018
ESPN’s Ian Begley reports that it’s a two-year, partially guaranteed deal for the league minimum. Wallace’s old club, the LA Clippers, can match the offer sheet (he’s a restricted free agent), but odds are good that the 24-year-old will end up in NOLA.
Wallace had joined the Clippers after Utah cut ties with him last summer. Following a training camp run in La-La Land and a tour of duty in the G-League, he became one of the big success stories of the first wave of two-way contracts.
In 30 games with the injury-riddled Clips — 19 of which were starts — he averaged nearly 10 points per game and shot over 44 percent from the field. The latter number was big for Wallace, there have been questions surrounding his jump shot since his days as a collegiate at Cal.
He still has a lot of work to do in that department, but was clearly able to find some success despite his shortcomings.
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I, for one, still think the Jazz missed the boat on Wallace. It’s hard to blame them for cutting ties given their roster situation and Wallace’s ho-hum year in the Jazz system, but he’s a willing defender and plus athlete with elite size and length — at 6-foot-6 with a 6-foot-10 wingspan — on the guard line.
In any case, he should be a strong addition for the Pelicans.