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Where Are They Now: Ty Wallace
Our next entry in the Where Are they Now series is Tyrone (Ty) Wallace, another young Clipper from the interregnum period between Lob City and the 213 era.
Clippers Career
Ty Wallace was the 60th pick in the 2016 pick by the Utah Jazz, but was not ever signed to an NBA deal by the Jazz, instead playing in their G-League system all of the 2017 season. He was signed to a training camp deal by the Clippers going into 2018, but was one of the last cuts in preseason. However, in mid-January, with the Clippers dealing with a ton of injuries and Ty playing well in Agua Caliente, he was signed to a two-way deal by the Clippers. Ty then spent most of the rest of the year playing in Los Angeles, logging 30 games (including 19 starts) in the NBA and averaging 9.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 28.4 minutes. Ty was not able to shoot at all (25% from three on low volume) but his driving ability plus size on defense made him a fairly promising prospect considering he was just 23 at the time.
Ty was a restricted free agent and got an offer by the New Orleans Pelicans, but the Clippers matched it, and he returned to the Clippers for the 2019 season. Like previous Where Are they Now entrants Jawun Evans and Sindarius Thornwell, Ty’s playing time was impacted by the advent of rookies Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jerome Robinson as well as the health of Pat Beverley and Avery Bradley. Ty still played in 62 contests, but his minutes dropped all the way down to 10.1, and his production and efficiency tanked. Ty was out of the rotation by the time the playoffs rolled around, and was waived after the season with the arrival of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. An abrupt end to what had seemingly been the start of a promising career with the Clippers.
2020 Season
Ty was claimed off waivers by the Timberwolves but was then waived by them at the end of training camp before playing in a single NBA game for Minnesota. However, Ty was then once again claimed off waivers, this time by the Atlanta Hawks. Ty played in 14 games for Atlanta in the next few months, but did not make much of an impact, averaging just 2.9 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 0.9 assists on horrid shooting splits (31.8/6.7/64.7) in 11.4 minutes per game. Ty was subsequently waived on December 14 and was not picked up by an NBA team.
However, the Clippers remained interested in having Ty Wallace in their system, and he was signed by the Agua Caliente Clippers in March 2020. As this was right at the end of the season, Ty played in just two games for Agua Caliente – it was more about keeping him going into the following season.
2021 Season
Ty remained with the Agua Caliente Clippers during the 2021 season, but for some reason only played in 11 games. Still, he started in 10 of those games and averaged 31.6 minutes while putting up a very robust line of 16.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.5 steals. In short, he was quite good, despite still not shooting well from three (28.6%) and turning the ball over 4 times per game.
2022 Season
Ty started off the 2022 season with the Agua Caliente Clippers as well, but was traded to the Long Island Nets (Brooklyn’s G-League team) before playing in a game. For the Nets, he had his best season since all the way back in 2018, averaging 21.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.9 assists in 35.6 minutes per game while only starting in 11 contests. Along the way, a shocking development occurred: Ty started taking and making threes at a high volume, with his 6.1 attempts and 42.7% shooting both being career highs by massive margins.
Ty was so good, in fact, that he got one last shot in the NBA, receiving two 10-day contracts from the Pelicans. Ty appeared in 6 games for New Orleans and averaged just 12.5 minutes per game, but it still must have felt great for him considering he’d been out of the NBA for 2.5 years at that point. Still, his cup of coffee in the NBA was brief, and he finished the season back in Long Island with the G-League.
2023 Season
After six years of playing professional basketball in the United States, Ty Wallace finally moved overseas in 2023. Maybe he knew that a real NBA contract wasn’t coming, or maybe the money and prospects of higher-quality basketball was too potent. Regardless, Ty signed with Paris Basketball of the LNB Elite and Eurocup in July 2022. He played in 43 combined games for Paris across both competitions, averaging 15.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 5.9 assists. His three-point shooting fell back down to earth at 31.3%, though his 5.8 attempts remained much higher than earlier in his career. The turnovers, too, were an issue, with 3.6 giveaways per contest, but the level of production in very good leagues was impressive.
2024 Season
Following his successful season in France, Ty upgraded slightly, signing with Turk Telecom of the Basketball Super League (BSL) in Turkey, which also competed in the Eurocup. The BSL is considered a somewhat stronger league than LNB and offers comparable pay. Ty upped his game for Turk, producing probably the finest season of his career considering tenure and level of play, as he averaged 17.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in 33 minutes while shooting 44.5% from the field, 33.7% from three (5.8 attempts), and 77.5% from the line (4.3 attempts) while cutting turnovers to 2.9 per game. An extremely impressive season from Ty at some of the highest levels of international competition.
2025 Season
In July 2024, Ty Wallace signed with Zalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL), a bit of a downgrade in terms of domestic leagues – but one that plays in the EuroLeague, the best league in the world outside of the US. However, Ty played only a few games for them before leaving the team in October. The explanation at the time was cloudy, but it seemed there were personal issues going on.
Ty was out of a job for a few months, but signed with Galatasaray of the BSL and Basketball Champions League. Ty played in 26 games for Galatasaray but started in just over half of them, and his stats were down across the board compared to previous seasons despite playing at a similar level. It’s unclear if he still had issues impacting him or his play was just suffering, but 2025 was definitely a down season, and in late June he and Galatasaray parted ways.
Future
Ty Wallace is somehow already 31 years old, putting him at the end of his prime and starting into the downslope of his career. Still, his 2022 to 2024 seasons would indicate he has plenty of good basketball left in him. It’s honestly been a pretty stellar career for the 60th pick in the draft and a relatively unheralded college prospect – compared to Evans and Thornwell, Wallace has played at higher levels and produced much better. It seems unlikely Ty will come back to the NBA, but a few more years in top international domestic leagues is certainly a possibility.