Tucker’s solid play deserves due notice
Veteran forward enjoying his best statistical season
Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni did not want to consider the statistics. They were never the point when he contemplated P.J. Tucker’s importance to the Rockets.
He did not even want to call this Tucker’s best season — though by so many measures, it is — as if that would diminish his previous seasons.
He mulled the question through an unusually long pause then offered an answer that sounded as if he were testifying to Congress.
“I would say, ‘Yes,’ ” D’Antoni said when asked if Tucker through 21 games has been the best he has ever been. “But that downplays the importance he played in other years. He may have better numbers this year. But he was as impactful the other years. He is key to what we do defensively. He’s having a great year. If his numbers go down, he’ll be just as impactful.”
The forward’s numbers, however, are irrefutable.
Tucker is averaging a career
high 10.1 points per game. He is making a career-best 53.1 percent of his shots. His 46.2 percent 3-point shooting is the best of his nine NBA seasons. His effective shooting percentage of .679 leads the NBA.
Go deeper. He is tied for second in loose balls recovered per game, third in charges drawn per game and leads the NBA in 3pointers contested per game.
“I hate to say it, but yes,” D’Antoni finally said. “But every year is good.”
Tucker will remain overshadowed as long as he shares the court with James Harden and Russell Westbrook. But Tucker has been the given, no longer the latest “No Stats All-Star,” as Shane Battier was once dubbed when he mastered the glue-guy duties with the Rockets.
But best season of his career? Even Tucker, 34, seemed to want to duck that question before acknowledging that has been the goal for every season.
“I don’t know. I like to feel like I get better every year,” Tucker said. “I feel I
progress every year since I’ve been back in the NBA. So, yeah, I think so. But I just feel like I’m getting better.
“I feel I came in the best shape I’ve been in coming into a season. I know what it takes. Obviously, that’s my game. Being smart, knowing what to do, not to do, doing everything I do to help my team win.”
Even teammates cite his steadiness, rather than his career-best numbers, as if shooting percentages are beside the point for a player the Rockets have used to match up with anyone from Luka Doncic to Kawhi Leonard.
“I know what I’m going to get from P.J. every single night,” Harden said. “That’s the kind of guy you want on your team. Defensively, obviously, he’s extremely competitive, but offensively, he is able to knock down that corner shot. You don’t have to worry about what he’s going to do. The more guys you have like that on a team, the more chance you have to win.”
Going from a game Thursday against his twotime former team to Saturday’s meeting against his longtime former team, Tucker is generally too removed
from his time with the Raptors or seasons with the Suns to feel much nostalgia.
Even his return to Toronto for the first time since the Raptors hung an NBA championship banner did not inspire sentimentality. He had four former teammates on the championship team, no more than he has friends on other teams. But before posting 18 points and 11 rebounds in Thursday’s win, he made it clear he was happy to be back.
“I had no reaction, really,” Tucker said of the Raptors winning the title in his second season after signing with the Rockets as a free agent, rather than returning. “I was happy for the guys, just like any other year. I was happy for the fans, more than anything. I love it there. One of the best places to play. They love you if you play there.”
He has become wellknown elsewhere, even if effective field-goal percentage likely will not be mentioned on cable television debate shows. When Juwan Howard, in his first season as Michigan coach, wanted toughness from his team, he held up a picture of Tucker. Howard has never been Tucker’s teammate or coach.
“That meant a lot to me,” Tucker said. “Juwan has always been one of my favorite guys. He always looked out for me when I was younger. He is one of the most positive, best leaders I know. So, for him to so that, that was amazing.”
Tucker said he had “crossed paths” with Howard over the years, as he has with players throughout the league. But there was a time that Tucker was a relative unknown, easily overlooked after he returned in 2012 after five seasons in Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Germany and Italy.
That changed during his three seasons with the Rockets. Now, his importance to the team in his best NBA season is unquestioned, regardless of how it is measured.
“I don’t know that it’s satisfaction,” Tucker said. “I appreciate being appreciated, of course. People respect you around the league. That’s a big thing, respect.”
That, he said, is bigger than any numbers saying this season has been his best.
jonathan.feigen@chron.com twitter.com/jonathan_feigen