Again it’s about the state of the Rockets (rebuild) and no chance of retaining Tucker at the price he wants to get paid at the then age of 36 (next season). Do the names Chandler Parsons or Ariza ring a bell? Didn’t Morey let them walk? Was it because they couldn’t play or they were washed up? No, price tag. Tucker is at that point as well. He doesn’t fit into the Rockets future if he is demanding a salary based on past accomplishment. Numbers don’t tell everything and numbers never lie. Take your pick when you wish to form the narrative your way. Fact of the matter is 6’5” Tucker should be guarding 6’9” players anymore and he has become too slow to guard SF’s. Cousins is a guy I can’t stand but is 99 DRtg. Yes the team helps him. Yes as a reserve the opponents ORtg is 103 and as a starter the opponents ORtg is 90. Even when Boogie is pouting because he is not starting he is not allowing or helping allow the opposition to sport a 120 ORtg as both Tucker and Harden were each doing. If Harden and Tucker had played defense in the earlier games the Rockets record right now could be 12-6. Would we be talking about trading Tucker? The threat of Tucker being traded to Sacramento or T-Wloves has Tucker putting out right now. Where was that intensity earlier? No, he doesn’t want to be traded to the Kings or T-Wolves.
Morey let Parsons walk, he is not one of these guys. Morey did not let Ariza walk, that was entirely the owner's doing. Tucker is perfectly capable of guarding 4's and hitting a corner 3 at bare minimum. His contribution is double what those things bring. As for Tucker's performance, you are talking about a person who got f'ed out of a ring, still has nerve damage from being overplayed, was promised an extension and has now been told "oops, sorry" at an age where it will be difficult for anyone to pay him forward when the Rockets are supposed to pay him back. We really f'ed this guy out of $30-40m and he earned it for US in the past, nevermind that he'll be a good rotation player on a contender for 2 more years. He's not demanding a salary based on past accomplishment, he's demanding salary that was promised to him clearly and there were leaks on the board to that effect. Maybe @Nook knows something, but Harden and Tucker were talking about making good on the promise ages ago. There's a reason no contender wants Ojeleye or Nadir, especially not for a pick. You know and I know Tucker is going to join a contender, and then he is magically on his new team gonna become "I don't even know how we used to play without Tucker!" or "Tucker is the real MVP" all that stuff, and we'll remember why we had him, and everyone here will be like "what were we supposed to do". If you're saying it's not beneficial to pay him, I get that, but there's no need to diminish his value by cherry picking stats and ignoring lineups. Tucker has been key cog in the best Rockets line up since he arrived, and I bet he still is. Dude is chilling, not going to give all that for an organization that didn't spend LT on a conference finals quality team, paid journalists to **** on his friend the 2nd best player in franchise history and screwed him out of money they promised him. Good for him, no reason to go all out, we should be tanking.
http://www.82games.com/1920/19HOU15.HTM Tucker gives us a PER of: PF: 10.2 (while playing PF) C: 9.6 (while playing Center) Opponent 48-minute production PF: 18.1 C: 21.3 Sorry, the guy makes every opponent look like an All Star. 15 is average. It’s noble of you and @D-rock to continue to make a legend of Tucker, but it’s ill advised for a GM to make that same mistake. Joe Johnson up in age cost us a second rounder. I believe Tucker nets us the same. Maybe 2 second rd picks. But a 1st seems like a pipe dream for just knowledge. Joe Johnson had a ton of knowledge as well.
Extend PJ Tucker? Not only no, but hell no. The guy is WAY past his prime, he's a complete void on offense and he's a shell of what he used to be on defense. He might be a good clubhouse guy, which could buy him another year of "cashin those checks" at something like half his current salary but that would be about it because he's nowhere near a starting caliber player at this point. If the goal was to tank, then sure, pay him whatever. Fortunately, the team has too much talent for that to be a realistic possibility, so you can't be wasting cap space on an over the hill bench player that still thinks he's a starter.
I've been on this board a long time dude, and I've watched the "basketball guy" embrace stats, and I've watched the stats guy embrace intangibles. Line ups are stats too, and there's nothing in the individual stats to explain why Tucker outperforms people with better individual stats in our must successful lineups. Joe Johnson has to create iso points to be successful, Tucker is a corner 3 shooter and sets picks on offense only. Again, you are ignoring context completely. We'll wait till another contender will turn him into a "legend" - a gross exaggeration - like every coach and team before us.
Personally I think there’s a middle ground here, you trade him for the right deal but keep him for the year if you are only getting a 2nd rounder in return. Certainly you don’t want to extend a player his age unless it’s a very team friendly deal.
Players that play with him love him because he does a lot of the dirty work for them - I can see why they like him, also players want to win now, they are not looking at the future of the franchise. If you can get a FRP for the guy, I think you have to let him go - now, if the team is seriously winning and GELLILNG together than maybe you reconsider......but I guess that remains to be seen. DD
I think there was probably an offer made to him before all the Harden blowup and he may have felt it wasnt enough so he did not accept it and opted to wait. Then James moved on and here we are.. now the team is looking better every week and PJ is a leader in the locker room and does the little things out there that helps teams win. Maybe he and the team agreed to wait and see how things go for a little while before he either accepts the offer and stays, or the team accommodates him and finds him a good landing spot at the deadline (instead of just anywhere for a good offer). I dont think the team would offer him a larger deal that would prevent us from making future moves. So he gets his money, and we can still go out and find a young PF with upside to come in and learn from PJ for a little while and then PJ moves to a backup role.
These quotes aren't worth much as evidence of how much Tucker should be paid. But they're good evidence of team morale post-Harden. I love that these guys are sticking up for him.
Are you really trying to compare the washed up shell of what was formerly just a decent role player to Christian Wood, a max contract level player?
Just pay him. We need to rehabilitate our brand image to potential free agents. If the league thinks our owner is a penny pinching douchebag then we wouldn't be able to sign anyone with that cap space anyway. Give him his money then try to trade him after.
joe johnson was waived by SAC, i believe, after the jae crowder trade. and then we signed him outright. but anyways, that season joe had already been out of UTA's rotation. tuck is still starting for us, albeit not w/ impressive numbers but still making impact plays in wins. if not a late "#1 draft choice" then maybe we can get a young big in a swap out of it. still want jarred vanderbilt from minny
Yes, I thought about how we obtained JJ as I went to work. Makes it even a worse situation of his team not liking any of the offers for JJ.....and then they had to waive him or buy out. Now Tucker is irreplaceable and worth millions of billion of trillions of dollars. From what I read today Tucker is the second coming of Wilt Chamberlain. All of a sudden he is 7’0” tall, scoring 48 points and 18 rebounds a game. Only he isn’t , he gives us 5 points and 4 rebs and starter minutes of 30+ minutes.......Kwame Brown like numbers. Don’t get me wrong, he can be sent to a contender, but said contender will need multiple fast lengthy players surrounding Tuck to win a championship by covering up his decreased skills. Each year his numbers have been going down.
Morey and Harden leave "You betrayed us, we HATE YOU , BUM, SNAKE QUITTER" Paying PJ Tucker after getting all his best years and underpaying him: "It's just business" LOL you expect to see it.
