NBA news:
Now this doesn’t mean that Tucker is necessarily leaving Miami. He could always work a new deal with the Heat, but turning down $7.4 million means that the mid level exception ($6.4 million) isn’t going to be enough to land him.
But the Sixers should try, because Tucker would be a great hit here. He’s an apex role player in the modern day NBA, was fantastic in Miami, and was a big part of getting Milwaukee over the championship hump last year. He played with James Harden for several years in Houston and is a no-nonsense guy who will play defense, get after it, and shoot the three at a high rate (41.5% last year, career 36.4%). He’ll grab you 7 and 5 on average and doesn’t need the ball. He really would be a nice complement for the high-usage Harden and Joel Embiid.
Tucker’s stats in the Philly series:
If you can move off Furkan Korkmaz and his ~$5million to bring in Tucker, you absolutely do it. Or if you can free up the Tobias Harris Salary and re-allocate, that works too. The Sixers don’t have a ton of wiggle room, but P.J. Tucker really would be perfect here because New Philadelphia needs dogs.