Phoenix Suns Weekly: P.J. Tucker Time, Jeff Hornacek Is The Future And More

Get The Ball To Tucker:

Before earning minutes with the Suns last season, P.J. Tucker had played a grand total of 17 games and 83 minutes in his NBA career…back in the 2006-07 season for the Toronto Raptors. Suffice it to say that his emergence as a valuable role player for any NBA team has been a pleasant surprise. Tucker is only averaging 9.7 points and 5.1 assists in 31.5 minutes per game, but those are all career highs, not to mention he’s shooting 45.8 percent from the field and an unconscious 50 percent from 3-point range this year. In his last two games, Tucker has put up 18 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals while going 4-of-6 from 3-point range. In the words of the immortal Coach Jack Wittenberg: “Get the ball to Tucker.”

Except, not really. Tucker is having himself a fine season and is doing all the Suns could ask of him. Just last week he absolutely shut James Harden down (14 points on 3-of-17 shooting) while also posting his own impressive 18-6-4-4 stat line. But the (limited) beauty of Tucker’s offensive game is just that: it’s limited. Tucker making half of his 3-point shots on 2.6 attempts per game is superb; Tucker making 52 percent of his corner 3s is absurd. (SPOILER ALERT, NBA DEFENSES: 46 of Tucker’s 52 3-point attempts this season have come from the corners, per NBA.com.) But Tucker is a defense-first kind of player, so asking him to do much more would be pushing the limits of reality.