P.J. Tucker making most of offensive opportunities with Heat and the story behind his floater
P.J. Tucker is currently on pace for one of the best offensive seasons of his NBA career at 36 years old.
While Tucker was expected to help solidify the Miami Heat’s defense, not many predicted he would add another hard-to-guard layer to the Heat’s offense when he joined the team as a free agent this past offseason. After all, he averaged just 3.7 points on 37.3 percent shooting from the field and 33.6 percent shooting from three-point range last season.
But Tucker, who was pegged mostly as a three-and-D player entering the season, has become an efficient option inside the three-point arc for the Heat.
“I just know by the way they play, by just playing against them and watching them, I knew I would get an opportunity to be able to do more and be able to showcase my game and things I can do,” Tucker said following the team’s morning shootaround session on the Georgetown campus ahead of Saturday night’s road game against the Washington Wizards. “So honestly, it’s just opportunity. In our system, the ball finds the open guy, it finds energy.”
The veteran forward entered Saturday shooting a career-high 62.5 percent on two-point opportunities with the help of well-timed off-ball cuts, putbacks and a newfound floater off rolls to the basket.
“He’s a really versatile player,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s easy for the average fan just to say that he’s a three-and-D guy. That doesn’t do it justice at all for how much he can impact the game and winning. He’s a really smart, savvy, experienced two-way player. He’s versatile, so he can do a lot of different things offensively. He’s a brilliant screener, but he’s also an off-ball guy that knows how to get into open areas. Sometimes it’s a three, sometimes it’s open space in the paint or on the baseline.”
Tucker entered Saturday averaging only 7.1 points on 5.1 shot attempts per game. He has averaged more points on a higher volume of shots before, but he has never been as efficient as he has been to begin this season.
Part of that is because Tucker is shooting a career-best 45.2 percent from three-point range on 2.6 attempts per game in his first season with the Heat. Known as one of the best corner three-point shooters, 16 of his 19 three-point makes and 37 of his 42 three-point attempts have come from the corners.
That efficiency from deep isn’t too surprising, even though Tucker’s three-point percentage from the corners dropped in four consecutive seasons from 40.3 percent in 2017-18 to 39.4 percent in 2018-19 to 38.1 percent in 2019-20 to 35 percent last season. He led the NBA in corner threes made for three consecutive seasons from 2017-20.
But Tucker isn’t just being used by the Heat as a floor spacer who stands in the corners. That’s evident when looking at his shot chart, as only 51.2 percent of shots have come from three-point range this season.
Nearly all of Tucker’s looks came from deep in recent seasons — 67.2 percent last season, 70.2 percent in 2019-20, 74 percent in 2018-19 and 70.3 percent in 2017-18.
Tucker’s more diverse shot profile has allowed other aspects of his offensive game to surface, as he’s shooting an ultra-efficient 14 of 24 (58.3 percent) on non-rim twos. A big reason behind that success is a floater that’s going in at an eye-opening rate.
It usually goes like this: Tucker sets a hard screen, short rolls into the paint, catches a pass and releases the one-handed floater as the big hangs back to protect the rim.
“It’s just finding the open space,” Tucker said. “If they play the drop, then I’m going to pop back. Some teams are switching, so I have to do different things. So it’s all according to the coverage and what teams are doing and who they have playing.”
Tucker is 12 of 18 on floaters in the Heat’s first 16 games this season, according to NBA tracking stats. Whether those shots will continue to go in at that rate is questionable, but it’s clear that defenses are going to have to respect Tucker’s floater because it’s a shot he takes regularly now.
Tucker attempted just 14 floaters last season, 30 floaters in 2019-20, 19 floaters in 2018-19, nine floaters in 2017-18, four floaters in 2016-17, eight floaters in 2015-16 and two floaters in 2014-15. But he noted it’s a shot he has had in his repertoire since his college days at Texas.
“Even college days, that floater and the touches in the lane, that’s actually been a key to my game and success in being able to be in the league,” Tucker said. “But over the past few years, obviously with everybody loving the three-point shots and layups, you don’t get too many opportunities for that. But here, I do.”
It’s a shot that would have been useful for the Heat against the Milwaukee Bucks’ drop coverage scheme in the first round of the playoffs last season. Tucker was a member of the Bucks’ roster at that point.
“With a drop defense, that’s the way you get the shot off,” Tucker said. “Trying to go up every time against a Brook Lopez or the big, you can let it go before he even gets there.”
Tucker’s offensive game with the Heat comes down to reading and reacting to how defenses are playing him. Spoelstra noted that teams have been playing Tucker for the pass on his short rolls, so he made the adjustment recently to be more aggressive with his own shot in those situations.
It’s working.
“He’s just such a clever high IQ offensive player,” Spoelstra said. “As a screener, as a guy who gets into open spaces, as a guy who can really knock down the corner three. But he’s not pre-determining any of that stuff. It’s based on the game and that’s part of his genius is finding different solutions of how he can impact and help our offense. He’s a very unselfish guy.”
MORRIS STILL OUT
Heat veteran forward Markieff Morris missed his seventh straight game on Saturday because of whiplash stemming from an altercation with Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who shoved Morris from behind in retaliation for a hard foul late in the Nuggets’ win over the Heat on Nov. 8.
Morris did not travel with the Heat to Washington, D.C., for the start of the four-game trip. He could miss 10 games due to whiplash if he misses the entire trip.
“It is disappointing,” Spoelstra said Saturday of the incident forcing Morris to miss a chunk of games. “A very dangerous play and it’s really unfortunate. That’s the byproduct of those kind of dangerous actions. But he is feeling better and we’ll just continue to take it one day at a time.”
The Heat and Nuggets face off again on Nov. 29 at FTX Arena.
Along with Morris, Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) remained out for the Heat on Saturday.
Bam Adebayo (left knee bruise) and Tyler Herro (right wrist bruise), who were both listed as questionable, were available to play against the Wizards.
This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 1:05 PM.
