It’s hard to find players as aware of their role on their respective teams as PJ Tucker on these 76ers. In a time of high scoring and massive goalscoring, the power forward has managed to stand out for the opposite, for being essential without ever needing to be an offensive threat. It seems that that does not go with him. That there is enough scoring talent on the team for him not to worry about those tasks.
Tucker finished with 0 points in Philadelphia’s victory over Minnesota last night, thus adding 18 games in which he did not score a single point, all of them as a starter. Throughout history, only four starting players have finished a season with more games with their locker to 0 than PJ accumulates right now (Jim McIlvaine with 21, Michael Curry with 22, Charles Jones with 23 and Jason Collins with 28 ), and, with several weeks still to go, he could hunt down several of them. Because if something is clear, it is that he is not going to mind continuing to accumulate bagels.
His is a curious case, because just as there are many players whose defenses float exaggeratedly and whose presence on the track ends up being directly detrimental to their teams’ attack, this is not the case with Tucker, who when he has space does not hesitate. in punishing the defense. Without going any further, he is shooting triples with a 40.2% accuracy, but this always seems to be a kind of last resort. As if he pulled when there was no other choice because in reality his job is someone else.
The 76ers player currently has more offensive rebounds (79) than shots made (78) and more steals (30) than free throws (22). He knows why he is on the track and he does it perfectly. Philaldephia has gone 14-4 in games in which it has gone scoreless, making it this kind of rare bird who, in an era where scoring is everything, lives on the fringes of the system. Because, even when he goes to zero, he never really goes to empty.
(Cover photo: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
