Sixers

P.J. Tucker Would be a Great Fit in Philadelphia

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jun 21st, 2022 · 8:48 AM EDT

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NBA news:

Miami’s PJ Tucker will opt out of his $7.4 million player option for the 2022-23 season and enter free agency, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Several championship contending teams are expected to compete for Tucker, who was a key part of Milwaukee’s title run in 2021.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 20, 2022

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:

• 30.7 minutes per game
• 8.2 points
• 5.2 rebounds
• 0.7 steals
• 0.5 blocks
• 1.7 assists
• non-quantifiable defense, effort, and hustle

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.

"WE GOT DOGS!"

P.J. Tucker knew this @Bucks team was tough 😤 pic.twitter.com/GRYDokYoY5

— NBA TV (@NBATV) July 22, 2021