PJ Tucker Agrees With Rockets on 4-Year, $32 Million Deal
The journeyman wing defender joins a new rising power in Houston.
Five years ago, PJ Tucker was grinding away in Europe for Brose Baskets Bamberg, playing his brand of tough defense against players most Americans have never heard of.
Today, he’s joining a burgeoning threat to the Warriors’ dominance of the NBA, agreeing in principle to a 4-year, $32 million contract with the Houston Rockets.
PJ Tucker 2016–17 Stats: 6.7 points (41.3 field goal percentage, 35.7 percent 3-point percentage), 5.8 rebounds, 1.4 steals
Fit
PJ Tucker now joins a stacked team, built around two superstars, playing for a coach that fits the modern pace-and-space NBA to a T. This is a dream come true for a role player as competitive and emotional as Tucker.
He’ll provide that necessary defensive punch from the wing and from the interior that every contending team needs. The Rockets will now have two wing stoppers to throw at Durant with Tucker and Ariza. Tucker is actually the better defensive matchup versus the Warriors — he could “defend” KD in the midpost (see his work in the 2016–17 Bucks/Raptors series), switch onto any Warrior except maybe Curry and not be a liability. You can’t say enough about how good of a fit Tucker is defensively on the retooled Houston Rockets.
Offensively, he’ll be limited mostly to catch-and-shoot 3s, largely from the corner, where’s taken more than 70 percent of his 3-point attempts and shot 37.2 percent for his career. That’s not terrible. In fact, that’s a solid number. But he isn’t a knockdown shooter, or one you game plan for, even a little. That could prove problematic in the playoffs, where the ebb and flow of a series can be decided by a few bricks. In addition, his lack of playmaking and his deteriorating ability to hit shots near the rim may render him an offensive liability
Nevertheless, he at least has one offensive skill to rely on: 3-point shooting. On a D’Antoni team, that’s usually all you need.
Signing Grade: A
