Veteran Clippers power forward P.J. Tucker has agreed to stay away from the team indefinitely, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
According to Marc J. Spears of Andscape (via Twitter), L.A. appears to be open to moving on from the former NBA champ.
“We’ve had ongoing conversations with P.J. throughout the offseason and have both decided that he won’t be with the team for the time being,” the Clippers revealed in a statement, first shared by Spears. “P.J. is a pro who has achieved a lot in his career and there’s more he wants to accomplish. We will continue working with P.J. and his representative to find the best situation for him moving forward.”
Perhaps two sides are hopeful to work out a trade of Tucker’s expiring $11.5MM contract, but given his recent production, a buyout may be the inevitable fix.
Law Murray of The Athletic tweets that Tucker, who was a healthy scratch during the Clippers’ Saturday preseason bout against the Warriors, was the lone L.A. player to not attend the team’s media day festivities last Monday.
The 6’5″ combo forward was long a venerated 3-and-D role player on several deep playoff clubs in Houston, Miami and Milwaukee. Tucker won his lone NBA title to date as a playoffs starter for the Bucks in 2021 — though he had been a reserve for the team during the balance of the 2020/21 regular season. The Texas alum was traded to the Clippers from the Sixers midway through 2023/24, as part of the deal that also landed James Harden in L.A.
Tucker had his least-productive season ever last year, as a fringe rotation player with both Philadelphia and L.A. He logged averages of 1.7 points on .360/.371/1.000 shooting splits. The 39-year-old also averaged 2.7 rebounds, 0.5 steals and 0.5 blocks a night, across 31 appearances with both clubs. As a deep-bench piece, the aging pro could still add value to a contending franchise on either side of the ball.
Even during his most prolific offensive season, 2013/14 with the Suns, Tucker averaged a fairly modest 9.4 points on a .431/.387/.776 slash line, along with 6.5 boards, 1.7 assists and 1.4 swipes. He finished 12th in Defensive Player of the Year voting that season, his best-ever such showing.
I called this 2 years ago when he signed the contract…. he shoulda stayed in Miami
Tucker to Lakers for Vincent
Who says no?
Lakers. Immediately.
I don’t like the lakers but why in the world would they do that lol