As time goes on, it gets more and more clear: Tyrone Wallace is a legit NBA rotation player. Not an especially impactful one, or an especially exciting one, but those aren’t requirements for being in the NBA. Solid role-players are often undervalued; that’s what Wallace is right now, and I don’t think anyone outside the strange corner of Los Angeles where the Clippers fans live even knows he exists.
Full disclosure, I thought the same thing about Jamil Wilson, maybe to a lesser extent, and now that dude is out of the league. It remains in the realm of possibility that Wallace finished up whatever contract he is on and dissolves back into the aether from whence he came. It happens all the time with players like this. There’s always the promise that the next guy you bring in will be the next Whiteside, the one that puts you over the top. Wallace isn’t putting any team over the top unless he goes back to the D-League.
It’s easy for me to say that, but his 19 points tonight corresponded with the best plus-minus on the team at +22. He didn’t score a ton during the main part of the Clippers’ big comeback, but he must have been doing something right out there.