Tucker barely misses All-Defensive team
The Rockets fell just short again, this time by an even slimmer margin.
Though the Rockets fervently argued that forward P.J. Tucker’s defense was worthy of All-Defensive team honors, recognition he repeatedly said did not interest him, Tucker came up one point short in the balloting announced Wednesday.
Tucker received one firstteam and 36 second-team votes, falling just shy of the Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard for the fourth forward spot. Leonard received five-team votes and 29 second-team votes for a spot on the second team.
The first team included Rudy Gobert of the Jazz, Paul George of the Thunder, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks, Marcus Smart of the Celtics and Eric Bledsoe of the Bucks.
The second team was made up of the Pelicans’ Jrue Holiday, the Warriors’ Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, and the 76ers Joel Embiid and Leonard.
The Rockets’ James Harden and Chris Paul also received votes. Paul had vehemently argued in March that Tucker should be honored.
“There’s no question Tuck should be first team All-Defense,” Paul said. “I’m not just saying that to hype him up and I don’t know what the analytics say or what his plus/minus is. But if you watch basketball, you’ll see he deserves it. You can’t just get alerts on your phone. That’s what a lot of people do these days.
“Like, if you got the alert app, it’s never going to pop up P.J. Tucker. But watch the games, not the box scores. P.J. rarely comes up on your alert. Does he? If you want to know what kind of shoes he’s got on, OK. But watch the game and you’ll see his value. Just do that. Watch the game. Not the app. Watch the game.”
Tucker, however, said he was not interested in individual honors and laughed at the campaign to have him recognized.
“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.”