Waving The White Flag On PJ Tucker
He is simply a liability and needs to be taken out of the starting lineup.
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Like many Sixers fans, I have been vocal in my critiques of P.J. Tucker’s (lack of) impact so far this season. All the while, though, I have held out hope that Tucker would have a stretch where he flashes the type of impact that many envisioned when the Sixers signed him last summer. As ugly as it had been, I’d still believed that he could make his presence felt in a big moment here or there – a key offensive rebound here, a clutch steal there. Just something, anything, to make you believe that even if the signing was an overpay, he was still somewhere in between uniquely valuable and irreplaceable on this team. I didn’t even need a “that’s why they signed P.J. Tucker” game, just a “that’s why they signed P.J. Tucker” moment.
Unfortunately, I am giving up on said moment. I am officially waving the white flag on Tucker – he is a complete and total non-presence on both ends of the floor. It is possible that his impact as a one-on-one defender becomes more valuable in the playoffs, but for now, he is simply a liability and needs to be taken out of the starting lineup.
A game like Thursday’s against Oklahoma City was a perfect example of where I thought Tucker would’ve been useful. The team came out with lifeless energy, and could’ve used a few hustle plays to give them a spark and play with some level of tenacity. Instead, Tucker logged zero points, two rebounds, and no steals or blocks in 21 minutes. Tucker has made a career out of doing things that don’t appear on the stat sheet, but in this case, he was as invisible as the numbers suggest.
If nothing else, I thought Tucker would make his presence felt by changing the vibes of this team. I figured he would at least yell at guys for missing rotations, piss off players on the other team, and be a Mike Scott-type enforcer/instigator when someone is yapping at one of the Sixers’ stars – the types of things that would give the Sixers a little bit of an edge and cut down on some of their low-effort nights. Instead, he has blended right into the Sixers’ morass of indifference on nights when they look flat.
Tucker’s offensive game has largely been reduced to standing in the dunker spot, getting in the mix for an offensive rebound, and gleefully trying to swat it back out as a more athletic player grabs it out of the air before he can reach it. Defensively, he has failed to live up to my expectations in terms of being a connector in off-ball settings – while he still has some juice left as a one-on-one stopper, he isn’t exactly flying around the floor off the ball cleaning up other people’s mistakes.
While Tucker wasn’t exactly replacing someone (Danny Green) with elite athleticism, it does feel like the Sixers could really use a punch of athleticism in between the relatively ground-bound games of James Harden and Tobias Harris. While De’Anthony Melton is the obvious choice to replace Tucker as a starter, I’m often left wondering what things would look like with Matisse Thybulle’s chaotic athleticism back in the starting lineup – which the team did quite well with in the immediate aftermath of the Harden trade – or even a few minutes of Paul Reed’s magnetic gravity towards loose balls with the rest of the starting five.
Even Georges Niang’s spacing would be preferable to whatever Tucker provides in many matchups. The point is: when you have no discernible area to hang your hat on, it’s easy to contrast that with specialists like Thybulle, Reed, or Niang, who can at least provide one thing.
Melton is the obvious choice, though, and starting him over Tucker is a no-brainer at this point. A trade for a starting-caliber wing would also be invaluable. Tucker, at this stage of his career, is a bench player. Next season, he’ll likely be a deep bench player. The following season, he’ll be an $11.5 million Udonis Haslem who borders on being a player/coach. A contract of that size is never a true disaster, especially for a player who I still consider to be a top-7 rotation player. But to summarize my feelings on the signing, I feel as though we can safely call him a downgrade from Danny Green.
While I do believe this team is better than last year’s team, I would attribute that mostly to adding Melton, getting a slightly better version of Harden, and the increase in continuity. If they did have last year’s version of Green on this team instead of Tucker (which to be clear, would have never happened, and would’ve made it impossible to get Melton), they would at least have a player in the starting lineup who moves without the ball, launches 3s with tight contests, and can compete on the defensive end. Instead, they have Tucker.
It is my hope – though not expectation – that Tucker can flummox the likes of Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant, or Khris Middleton in the playoffs, and finally give us our “that’s why they signed P.J. Tucker” moment. But for now, exactly halfway through the season, I’m pretty alarmed that that moment has yet to come.