Rockets point guard Chris Paul is openly campaigning for forward P.J. Tucker to make the league’s All-Defensive First Team, but Tucker isn’t looking for individual accolades, as he told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
“I don’t know why he’s doing that,” Tucker said. “I’m not one of those guys that’s going to make my case for making it, be mad and cry if I don’t. I don’t care. I want to win. I don’t care if somebody says I’m the best or the worst defender. I’m going to go out and do what I do every single night no matter what. I never got praise for anything I’ve done so I don’t look for it.”
Barring a trade, Tucker will remain the team’s perimeter stopper for at least one more season. Tucker’s $8,349,039 salary for next season is locked in, though his $8MM salary for the 2020/21 season is not guaranteed.
We have more on the Rockets:
- Power forward Kenneth Faried is expected to return on Monday after missing five games with a sore hip and strained adductor, Feigen reports. Faried has posted 14.9 PPG and 9.4 RPG in 16 games since signing with Houston after he was waived by Brooklyn in January.
- The salary protection for forward Gary Clark is locked in at $708,426 for the 2019/20 season, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The Houston forward had a clause in his contract that would have guaranteed his full salary ($1.4MM) if he appeared in more than 36 games and either played in one playoff game or was waived by April 10. Clark has appeared in 41 games but 21 were played under his two-way deal, which didn’t count toward those 36 games. Clark did not play in Sunday’s win over Dallas.
- James Harden‘s play has created a new way of evaluating players, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle to Feigen and other media members. “It’s a pretty remarkable phenomenon,” Carlisle said. “I don’t know if there’s ever been anything quite like this. They’re extremely effective. He’s extremely effective. It’s bringing new metrics into play and things like that. There’s a lot of people studying it, looking at it. … One I heard this year is there is now a statistic on stepback shots, which I had never heard of before this year.”
SportVU data has been available for a few years now…
chris paul looks 10-15 lbs lighter this year, his chubby face was borderline fat
Brooklyn ain’t looking so good after letting Faried go, they could have done with a guy like him to play the 4-5, is better than Davis that is for sure.
I couldn’t agree more, that was exactly what I was about to post. The most baffling part is that it isn’t like Faried’s production is a fluke or came out of nowhere.
Faried has always been this high energy, solid rebounding, tough defensively, and opportunistic scoring type of player. Brooklyn not only had a hole and need for Faried, but he would have also been the perfect on-court mentor for his teammates!! He would have been exactly everything a young, tough, up and coming gritty team stands for and needs. I never understood why they blackballed the Manimal, and I will never understand. Every playoff team needs a Kenneth Faried, and if Brooklyn would have used him and kept him, I don’t have any doubts it would’ve really helped their playoff positioning. Manimal would have easily been the difference between being in 6th, rather than 7th, and who knows, with his fire, passion, energy, production, and never surrender attitude, Faried just might have been enough to at least get then a lot close to that 5th spot..
However, now, we will never know, but I truly couldn’t be happier for Faried. He has earned all of this, and then some. I’m just happy people are able to see what a solid player he is, because several people seemingly were sleeping on Faried and forgot just exactly what all he can bring to the table..
Yeah it was baffling especially as a Nets fan but we were just too deep. We used him as a 5 and he was buried behind Allen and Davis but when he played he was productive af. I heard Ian Eagle say on YES that Faried was the only player not “buying in” to Nets culture. Within a week he was bought out and honestly he found a perfect team for him in Houston. Capela was out, he’s good at p’n’r and was super fresh after not playing much in a year and a half. If Allen or Davis were injured he would have been kept most likely. As far as him playing at the 4 for BKN it was never gonna happen. Atkinson likes stretch 4’s which is why he went with Dudley and now he’s going with Kurucs. Hopefully Houston resigns the Manimal it’s seems to be good for both parties. In the Nets FO eyes I understand because why have Faried as a 3rd string C when they could try G-leaguers out or have gotten a stretch 4 on the BO market (went for Markief Morris but he chose OKC).
Agree, Nets are committed to Allen & Davis at the 5, and at the 4, Kurocs, Dudley & RondaeHJ.
Interesting about Faried possibly not buying in. I bet the issue was unwillingness in developing new skills.
Maybe 3rd team all-defense, but Tucker is not a 1st team defender. Just no chance, I would argue he is not even a 2nd team guy. Defensively speaking, this year Klay, Smart, Giannis, Myles Turner, Paul George, A.Gordon, Covington, and Siakim have all been better than Tucker. So, that’s pretty easily 8 guys ahead of Tucker, and that’s not even including some bigger name guys that will get votes like Gobert, Durant, Embiid, Kawhi, Nurkic, or Paul himself, or to a lesser extent guys like Jrue Holiday, Middleton, and Eric Bledsoe..It’s also not including young up and coming defenders like John Collins, C.Capela, J.Allen, J.Isaac, or a guy like Brogdon..Who, for the record, I would put Tucker over the last 9-10 mentioned names..I’m just saying, it’s going to be a tough road for Tuck to even make the 3rd team, much less the 2nd team…
Obviously, this is just Chris Paul wanting to get his teammate more recognition for his defensive prowess. Although, this is nothing more than Paul wanting to get Tucker’s name out there for the voters to consider..
Ohh, and I did forget another solid up aND coming defender in SGA for the Clips..
Tucker is an elite defender. But someone like him (without a name) would need stronger metrics than he’ll ever get (regardless of how well he defends) playing in the MDA system (particularly as the only versatile defender), in order to be considered for 1st team All Defense. But, like he said, who cares? Defense doesn’t get much recognition from those who care about awards in any event. Gobert didn’t even make the AS team.