Labeled as a ‘cornerstone’ and ‘beloved,’ it’s clear Heat wants P.J. Tucker back next season
Veteran forward P.J. Tucker signed with the Miami Heat last summer as a known commodity after 10 NBA seasons, with a reputation as one of the toughest and grittiest players in the league who does the little things that don’t always show up on the boxscore.
But Tucker’s all-out effort, ability to play through injuries, leadership, defensive versatility and the untapped aspects of his offensive game still caught his new teammates, coaches and front office by surprise in his first season with the Heat.
“Man, I was surprised at just how hard and how consistent and just how tough P.J. is,” Heat captain and veteran Udonis Haslem said amid exit interviews last week. “There are very few guys that I feel like approach the game every night the way I did, you know what I’m saying. P.J. just happened to be one of them.”
Just days after the Heat’s season came to an end in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, coach Erik Spoelstra labeled Tucker as “an absolute throwback player” who is “beloved by staff and everybody in the locker room” and team president Pat Riley called Tucker a “cornerstone” player for the franchise.
The Heat could have an opportunity to show just how much it values Tucker if he chooses to become a free agent this summer. Tucker, 37, holds a $7.4 million player option in his contract for next season that he must decide on by June 29.
Whether Tucker opts out of his contract at this late stage of his playing career and negotiates with the Heat for more money and years or even considers outside offers is still to be determined. But if Tucker does choose to become a free agent, one of Miami’s top offseason priorities will be to re-sign him.
“He was so important all across the board,” Spoelstra said when asked about Tucker’s first season with the Heat. “That competitive spirit, his competitive will, his consistent toughness that you can just count on every single day. And he has a way of communicating that and inspiring everybody in the locker room that is so genuine. If you’re just observing it from the outside, you’re like: ‘Wow, that’s intense.’ But to everybody in the locker room, it’s a really special genuine feeling when you have somebody that is that committed to winning and helping other guys.
“He’s so unselfish as a player, always taking on the biggest challenges. Defensively, he’ll do all the little things, the dirty work, the tough things and never complain about it. He never complains or talks about his shots. He’s just completely selfless.”
Tucker thrived as the Heat’s starting power forward alongside starting center Bam Adebayo, with Tucker’s combination of elite three-point shooting from the corners and defensive versatility at 6-5 and 245-pounds providing a skill set that complemented Adebayo’s game.
Tucker averaged 7.6 points on 41.5 percent shooting from three-point range, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 71 regular-season games (70 starts) in his first year with the Heat.
It represented somewhat of an offensive renaissance for Tucker. He averaged his most points per game since 2015-16, shot his highest percentage from the field since his rookie season when he played in just 17 games in 2006-07 and shot a career-best percentage from three-point range this season.
Tucker even surprised with his ball-handling and passing, as the Heat used him as a playmaker on the short roll and an offensive hub especially during the seven weeks that Adebayo missed because of a thumb injury. Tucker averaged his most assists and posted his highest usage rate (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the court) since 2015-16.
“If I had to pick something that surprised me, it would be certainly the skill level offensively,” Spoelstra said of Tucker. “That wasn’t necessarily something that we were planning on. The adversity kind of brought it out. But we had to find different solutions offensively when we went through the injuries and Jimmy [Butler] and Bam were out, and we had a bunch of other guys out, as well. We needed to put the ball somewhere and he had mentioned to me when we went out to dinner in L.A. that he had played point guard before when he played in Germany. I laughed.
“Sure enough about two weeks later, we started to go through our injuries. We’re like, ‘We’re about find out right now.’ We’re going to start using him as a trigger, have him handle more, play out of the post with him or at the elbows and he was just sensational in those moments. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to me. If you’re that much of a high IQ player defensively and you see things happen before they happen.”
The Heat isn’t on track to have cap space and doesn’t hold Tucker’s Bird rights, so there is a limit to what it can offer him if he decides to become a free agent this offseason.
▪ One option is to use the non-Bird exception to offer Tucker a contract with a starting salary of up to $8.4 million (a $1 million raise on the player option) that can be from one to four seasons long.
▪ The Heat could also offer Tucker up to the the full $10.3 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception to re-sign him to a contract that could be from one to four seasons long, but using that exception would hard cap the Heat at the apron that’s expected to be at around $155 million.
According to ESPN analyst and former Nets executive Bobby Marks, the market outside of Miami for Tucker is in the $6 million to $8 million range.
“Tuck is the kind of player that doesn’t have to do a lot from a scoring standpoint, but he makes so many great plays for you,” Riley said. “He is like a cornerstone for us. Toughness, rebounding, defense, no nonsense guy. I’d love to have Tuck back next year. He’s part of our core and we’ll see what happens.”
In just one season, it’s clear that Tucker already left his mark in Miami. And the Heat hopes he’s back for a second season.
“I was just thankful to have a guy like P.J. on our team,” Haslem said. “I’m watching this guy go out every night and burn the candle at both ends to give you everything he got. He ain’t leaving nothing when the clock hits zero and that’s admirable. Through rain, sleet, snow, bumped up, bruised, P.J. was going to give you everything he had seven days a week and twice on Sunday.
“Guys like P.J. are overlooked. He’s a warrior and we appreciate a guy like P.J. Great team player, always positive, holds guys accountable, defensive first type guy and he’s got a little game to him offensively with his trickery and his fake handoffs, his floater, different things like that.”
