In-season NBA news thread

[Euclis20]

Speaking of JJ, he had Doris Burke on his Pod this week. At the end, he questioned her feelings on Celtics fans believing she was a Sixers homer. The meat and potatoes around her response was that the arena was so loud when Philly scored that she had to raise her voice to rise above the crowd whereas she could speak in normal tone when Boston scored.

Thanks for mentioning this, I'll probably listen. IIRC, the problem wasn't really that she was raising her voice and sounding more excited, it's that she spoke of Embiid in particularly effusive terms. Maybe it was the narrative around him finally getting MVP and coming back from injury, but despite his thoroughly mediocre series and predictable late game issues, anything he did was treated like it was the first time anyone had ever done it.

View: https://twitter.com/gallandguile/status/1654674561743433728?s=20


Basically sums it up (at least until she pointed out that he and Harden basically quit at the end of game 6).

 

[RorschachsMask]

View: https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1667625459293511682?s=20

 

[Auger34]

Thanks for mentioning this, I'll probably listen. IIRC, the problem wasn't really that she was raising her voice and sounding more excited, it's that she spoke of Embiid in particularly effusive terms. Maybe it was the narrative around him finally getting MVP and coming back from injury, but despite his thoroughly mediocre series and predictable late game issues, anything he did was treated like it was the first time anyone had ever done it.

View: https://twitter.com/gallandguile/status/1654674561743433728?s=20


Basically sums it up (at least until she pointed out that he and Harden basically quit at the end of game 6).

She was annoyingly over the top about Embiid, Doc and PJ Tucker

 

[Euclis20]

She was annoyingly over the top about Embiid, Doc and PJ Tucker

Every announcer is annoyingly over the top about Tucker. Instead of focusing on what he does well (defense!), announcers like to play up the very occasional moments of production he has on the offensive end of the floor. 187 players played 20+ mpg this year, and among that group Tucker was 187th in points per game and 186th in assists per game. A big deal is made whenever he hits a corner 3 or grabs an offensive rebound, but he was 184th in 3PM per game and 68th on ORB per game (higher than I thought). I don't know what it is about the guy that makes people lose their minds about him whenever he does anything other than simply get out of the way on offense. He was scoreless in 22 games this year, averaging about 24 minutes in those games. It should be embarrassing that his meager production last year in Miami (7.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists) was far superior to his anemic offense this year in Philly (3.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and .8 assists).

 

[HomeRunBaker]

Every announcer is annoyingly over the top about Tucker. Instead of focusing on what he does well (defense!), announcers like to play up the very occasional moments of production he has on the offensive end of the floor. 187 players played 20+ mpg this year, and among that group Tucker was 187th in points per game and 186th in assists per game. A big deal is made whenever he hits a corner 3 or grabs an offensive rebound, but he was 184th in 3PM per game and 68th on ORB per game (higher than I thought). I don't know what it is about the guy that makes people lose their minds about him whenever he does anything other than simply get out of the way on offense. He was scoreless in 22 games this year, averaging about 24 minutes in those games. It should be embarrassing that his meager production last year in Miami (7.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists) was far superior to his anemic offense this year in Philly (3.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and .8 assists).

Tucker should be a study into how difficult it is to get off 3-pt shots in todays NBA against close out defenders with their length and athleticism.

 

[Euclis20]

Tucker should be a study into how difficult it is to get off 3-pt shots in todays NBA against close out defenders with their length and athleticism.

Maybe it's as simple as that, and he's been able to turn his [lack of] height on defense into at least a minor positive, due to his low center of gravity making him very difficult to move. Unfortunately, having a low center of gravity really doesn't help you at all on offense if your only way of scoring the ball is hitting wide open 3s.

It still doesn't totally explain how his assist rate (10.6% to 3.9%) and rebound rate (11.1% to 9.1%) dipped strongly since last year, but he is pretty old. The only truthful and positive thing that an announcer can say about his offense is that he never, ever tries to do too much.

 

[Kliq]

Every announcer is annoyingly over the top about Tucker. Instead of focusing on what he does well (defense!), announcers like to play up the very occasional moments of production he has on the offensive end of the floor. 187 players played 20+ mpg this year, and among that group Tucker was 187th in points per game and 186th in assists per game. A big deal is made whenever he hits a corner 3 or grabs an offensive rebound, but he was 184th in 3PM per game and 68th on ORB per game (higher than I thought). I don't know what it is about the guy that makes people lose their minds about him whenever he does anything other than simply get out of the way on offense. He was scoreless in 22 games this year, averaging about 24 minutes in those games. It should be embarrassing that his meager production last year in Miami (7.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists) was far superior to his anemic offense this year in Philly (3.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and .8 assists).

NBA announcers, especially color people, love to point out when a player does something they are known for NOT doing, and extrapolate that moment to push back against a narrative.

In the same series, Doris loved to mention any time Harden or Maxey made a defensive play, as another example.

 

[HomeRunBaker]

Maybe it's as simple as that, and he's been able to turn his [lack of] height on defense into at least a minor positive, due to his low center of gravity making him very difficult to move. Unfortunately, having a low center of gravity really doesn't help you at all on offense if your only way of scoring the ball is hitting wide open 3s.

It still doesn't totally explain how his assist rate (10.6% to 3.9%) and rebound rate (11.1% to 9.1%) dipped strongly since last year, but he is pretty old. The only truthful and positive thing that an announcer can say about his offense is that he never, ever tries to do too much.

Assist rate is easily explained as his role has changed to solely be a corner spacing guy on offense without any opportunities to create.

His RebRate is in the same range as it's been his entire career and higher this season than 3 of his previous 4 so nothing really changed here.

 

[Euclis20]

Assist rate is easily explained as his role has changed to solely be a corner spacing guy on offense without any opportunities to create.

His RebRate is in the same range as it's been his entire career and higher this season than 3 of his previous 4 so nothing really changed here.

On rebound rate, maybe we're talking about different numbers. His TRB% was the 2nd lowest of his career (granted the lowest was in 2021, but still)

On assist rate it's true that his role definitely changed, but he also had the lowest assist rate of his career, and he's basically been a sit in the corner guy on offense ever since he found his role in the NBA. Additionally while his assists dwindled away to nothing, he still averaged a pretty unhealthy turnover rate of 15.8%, the 2nd worst % since his rookie season. For an easy comparison, only Marcus Smart had a higher TOV% among Celtics regulars.

Whenever someone's production is as low as Tucker's there are always multiple factors at play, but it's really not a stretch to say he was the least productive starter (on offense) in the league this year. That's not a guy deserving of any kind words on offense.

*edit - my favorite PJ Tucker moment of the season was when he somehow scored 11 points in the 1st quarter of game 7, far above his customary .875 points per quarter. He was one shot away from potentially a season high (he scored 13 points against Washington back on Halloween), and to no one's surprise, he didn't score again.

 

[HomeRunBaker]

Wrong thread