P.J. Tucker
Los Angeles Clippers

Player Facts

Height: 6'5"
Weight: 245lbs.

Wingspan: 6'10.5"

Date of Birth: May 5, 1985
College Experience: Texas (3 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 4
Physical Strength: 9
Positional Size: 4
Positional Wingspan: 6
Paint Scoring: 4
Midrange Scoring: 3
Three-Point Scoring: 8
Dribbling: 2
Passing: 2
Perimeter Defense: 8
Interior Defense: 8
Rebounding: 7

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Dependability

> Raining from the Corners

> Offensive Rebounding

> Swiss-Army Knife

> Stonewalling Post-Ups

> Doing the Dirty Work

> Isolation and Handoff Defense

> Major Offensive Weak Points

> Defensive Nitpicks

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of NF & Smart Highlights (YouTube)

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

P.J. Tucker is a determined, gritty basketball player who provides value on both ends. At 6'5" and 245lbs., he's built like a tank. The undersized power forward/center Tucker uses his robust build to be a factor on the glass and as a versatile man defender. Wisely, he has progressively integrated a knockdown three-ball into his game.

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Dependability

Tucker stays within himself admirably. He leans on his strengths while curbing the urge to selfishly play outside of them. This earns him his status of being one of the elite glue guys in the Association.

One of P.J.'s best assets is his availability. Between 2012-2013 and 2019-2020, he only missed 8 regular season games total. Tucker is an iron man in this way, a player who can constantly be relied upon to suit up and play. Even in his age-36 season (2021-2022), he remained top-100 in total minutes logged.

Raining from the Corners

The crux of Tucker's scoring value comes from the spot-up triple. He is deadly from the corners, with a clean form commenced by a dip for a smooth energy transfer.

Despite not putting a ton of arc on his jumpers, the Texas product remains accurate. He drained 41.3% in the corners in 2021-2022.

His 4.6 catch-and-shoot points per game in 2019-2020 bested the likes of Tobias Harris, T.J. Warren, and Brook Lopez. Impressively, P.J. has been in the top-15 for spot-up points totaled in both 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. In those two seasons, Tucker provided invaluable floor spacing for penetrators like James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and Eric Gordon.

In transition, he chugs straight to the deep corner which can pull his defender toward him and away from the basket. P.J.'s proficiency from downtown continues in the open court, with the ball-handler feeding him for a triple. The hard-nosed Tucker instinctively darts inside when a teammate is the one shooting in transition.

Offensive Rebounding

Tucker's glass-crashing tendencies persist within the half-court. With that dense 245lbs. frame and supreme leg strength, P.J. obtains and withholds optimal rebound positioning.

He typically looks to fire it back out for a reset rather than going back up in traffic. Remarkably, Tucker has collected 90+ offensive rebounds each year from 2014-2015 to 2019-2020 as a 6'5" player.

Swiss-Army Knife

P.J. has one of the more diverse defensive profiles in the league. He can at least capably guard all five positions, employing his physical tools and exerting admirable effort. He also possesses very strong hands with great coordination on strips.

Frequently the one defending the screen-setter in pick-and-rolls, P.J. uses an array of subtle tricks to be effective. By being so switchable, he confidently hands his man off to his teammate quite literally to ensure a clean swap. The tenacious Tucker proceeds to drop into his defensive stance to hound his ball-handling counterpart.

One testament to PJ's broad defensive value is how he held opponents to less than their normal shooting clip from < 6 feet, < 10 feet, and > 15 feet in both 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. He stockpiled shot contests especially during that latter season as the durable and disruptive defender he is.

2019-2020 saw him tally the second-most three-point shot contests at 326. He was edged out only by the rangy Pascal Siakam.

Stonewalling Post-Ups

Tucker's defensive versatility continues to prevail in the post. He's a stout post defender who makes life difficult on even substantially taller players. P.J. excels by dropping himself to become even more challenging to move, as well as by keeping his hands up and active. He has held posting-up opponents to less than 0.90 points per possession in 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020.

Doing the Dirty Work

At a relatively ground-bound 6'5", the basket protection he provides is unconventional by necessity. He fearlessly steps in to take charges against anyone rather than sky for athletic swats. P.J. placed fifth in the NBA in both 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 for total charges drawn.

Taking it on the numbers isn't the only dirty work Tucker does on defense. He continually sacrifices his body by being the first man to the deck on 50-50 battles. In 2019-2020, he was second in total loose balls recovered just behind Anthony Davis.

Isolation and Handoff Defense

For some final points on P.J.'s defense, his isolation defense and ability to blow up handoffs should be noted. One-on-one, he shuffles his feet extremely well, and very few players can overwhelm him physically.

Likewise, he bothers dribble handoffs by getting his heavy hand into the play. He was in the 63rd percentile for his handoff defense in 2019-2020.

WEAKNESSES

Major Offensive Weak Points

The majority of P.J. Tucker's deficiencies as a player lie on the offensive end. As a low-volume scorer, he has minimal shot creation ability and lacks the explosion, shiftiness, or handle to break down defenses. Moreover, he's not much of a roll threat as a short frontcourt player with an uninspiring vertical.

Across a full 82 game slate, Tucker only managed 89 attempts at the rim in 2018-2019. 2019-2020 saw him shoot only 73 times there across his 72 games. A side effect of this lack of rim pressure is an abysmal free throw attempt rate.

One way to capture PJ.'s offensive weaknesses is by comparing his catch-and-shoot percentages against his pull-up numbers. Combining his 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, he shot 667 catch-and-shoot threes on 37.2% versus merely 18 pull-up triples on 27.8%. Examining zones, he struggles from above-the-break compared to the corners.

He has a middling playmaking ability at best. P.J. lives between 1-2 assists per game in a given season. From what he shows on the court, most pass types beyond the simple swing are outside of his comfort zone.

Across his entire career, he's never shown he can be an even serviceable post player. With great full-body strength, P.J. could utilize this avenue to exploit mismatches. A lack of back-to-the-basket skill is what holds him back here.

Defensive Nitpicks

Defensively, he does most things well-to-very well. A small gripe to have with P.J. is that the speediest point guards can give him fits. But this is rare as Tucker can typically contain non-superstar guards which is all you can reasonably ask of a frontcourt player. Furthermore, he fails to provide the shot-blocking you would ideally want out of your big.

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Players Appearing Here – Check Out Their Profiles
bacon
Beacon Bacon

Following his brief rookie stint with the Raptors, P.J. played overseas for five seasons before transitioning back to the NBA at the age of 27