The Houston Rockets are screwed. Its hot start in the post-James Harden era was interrupted when Christian Wood sprained his right ankle, and now the Rockets have lost 10 consecutive games. With their playoff hopes likely to be dashed, it is time for Houston to start considering the possibility of distributing its veterans to opposing teams. Unsurprisingly, one is attracting the interest of the entire league: PJ Tucker.
Reports linked the Milwaukee Bucks to Houston’s strong defender earlier this week. Now Kelly Iko of Athletic is reporting that three other teams are in the mix: Brooklyn Nets, Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz.
Brooklyn, at least theoretically, had a chance to negotiate with Tucker earlier in the season. They have already executed a successful deal with the Rockets this season, when they acquired James Harden. There is little reason to believe that the Nets did not at least ask for Tucker at that point, but given the hurried nature of these negotiations, it is possible that Brooklyn simply did not press the issue. It is important to note, however, that the Rockets already control Brooklyn’s choices in the first round for the next seven years. If the Nets had anything else Houston wanted, they probably would have extracted it from the Harden deal.
Denver is an obvious choice for Tucker. The Nuggets are currently in 21st place in defense, and injuries have decreased much of their depth. Jerami Grant’s departure from Tucker’s position did not help in the off-season. Tucker is not even remotely the top scorer that Grant ended up being, but he could play a similar role in defense at a lower price. Tucker earns only about $ 8 million this season. That salary would fit the commercial exception that Denver obtained in Grant’s sign-and-trade with Detroit, although it took the Nuggets beyond the luxury tax. Denver has a maximum limit of $ 138.9 million, so you would have to be careful when managing the rest of your list.
Utah would have a much harder time negotiating with Tucker. They have already crossed the tax line and, like the Nuggets, have a maximum limit. At the moment, they have a bit of room to maneuver below that line, but they lack an adequate trade exception to simply absorb Tucker. They would have to send corresponding wages, and the way their list is built, they just don’t have a lot of money available. Jazz has eight players in its roster, earning more than $ 2 million. These eight players, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, Joe Ingles, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jordan Clarkson, Derrick Favors and Royce O’Neale, are Utah’s eight leaders in minutes played. All of their significant salaries are an essential part of their rotation, so they don’t have an obvious method of acquiring Tucker without compromising the success of their current group.
More contenders will join the fray if Tucker really does become available. Despite his age (36) and declining 3-point pitches (he made just 31.6% of his attempts this season), his record as a small five-ball in the postseason will appeal to any team with serious championship aspirations .