{"id":64034,"date":"2024-02-14T11:22:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T16:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=64034"},"modified":"2024-02-14T11:26:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T16:26:18","slug":"nba-news-clippers-veteran-stepping-away-from-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/14\/nba-news-clippers-veteran-stepping-away-from-team\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA News: Clippers Veteran Stepping Away From Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tuckepj01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">P.J. Tucker<\/a> is reportedly taking a leave of absence from the Los Angeles Clippers, <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/5275013\/2024\/02\/14\/sports-betting-nba-finals-celtics-nuggets-nba-the-bounce\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to the Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania<\/a>. Tucker will miss the Clippers&#8217; game tonight against the Golden State Warriors and will rejoin the team following the All-Star break.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Amid three months of frustrations, PJ Tucker will be away from the Los Angeles Clippers to reset mindset and is expected to rejoin the team after the All-Star break, sources say.<\/p>\n<p>Details in The Bounce at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZCfq9QkYN7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/ZCfq9QkYN7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1757788985345069475?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>NBA News: Clippers Veteran Stepping Away From Team<\/h2>\n<h3>P.J. Tucker&#8217;s Time With the Clippers<\/h3>\n<p>Tucker began the season as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, starting all three opening regular season games. He was then <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/10\/31\/james-harden-trade-grades-2\/\" target=\"_self\">traded to the Clippers<\/a> as part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Harden<\/a> trade.<\/p>\n<p>Since arriving in Los Angeles, the 38 year-old has found playing time hard to come by. He has appeared in only 12 games, averaging 14.4 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>In those minutes, he is averaging 1.2 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.7 assists, attempting fewer than two shots per game.<\/p>\n<h3>Failed Trade Attempts<\/h3>\n<p>Tucker made it clear that his goal is to play significant minutes on a contending team, and he was largely expected to be traded prior to the deadline. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/39467350\/nba-trade-deadline-how-players-handle-moving-family-clothes\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ESPN&#8217;s Ohm Youngmisuk reported last week<\/a> that Tucker himself wanted out. &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s been a mentor to the younger players but wants to play &#8212; telling ESPN that he is &#8216;actively trying to get traded.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, there were a few roadblocks that prevented a trade from happening.<\/p>\n<p>In the summer of 2022, Tucker signed a three-year, $33 million extension with the 76ers. That deal includes a player option for the 2024-25 season, when Tucker will be 39.<\/p>\n<p>Other than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a>, Tucker is the oldest active player in the NBA. His contract is simply too expensive for contending teams to make a move for a player that his significantly past his best.<\/p>\n<p>A buyout seems like the most logical way to satiate Tucker&#8217;s desires. However, Charania states that &#8220;a buyout has not been under consideration as Tucker has a $11.5 million player option for next season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A disgruntled Tucker took to social media to voice his frustrations following the trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/heat\/miami-news\/p-j-tucker-expresses-his-frustration-on-social-media-after-trade-deadline\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;Tucker was not traded, leading him to openly voice his frustration on social media. Tucker posted a black screen that read, &#8216;All this (expletive) is a (expletive) joke&#8230;&#8217; in the corner of an Instagram story.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Clippers Future With P.J. Tucker<\/h3>\n<p>There is still hope for the Clippers wing to receive playing time as L.A. braces for a playoff run.<\/p>\n<p>In Charania&#8217;s article, it is stated that &#8220;the Clippers and Tucker have had productive discussions this week about the disgruntled forward staying ready for potentially re-entering the rotation, according to league sources.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His playoff resume speaks for itself, having played in 102 postseason games since 2016-17. In those series, Tucker&#8217;s teams reached the Conference Finals three times. Tucker was a key presence on the Milwaukee Bucks&#8217; 2020-21 title-winning squad, averaging 31 minutes in the Finals.<\/p>\n<p>Tucker&#8217;s main strength is defense, but he is largely inactive on the offensive end. That bodes well for his current situation in Los Angeles. He is surrounded by a plethora of offensive creators and finishers.<\/p>\n<p>If Clippers head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/coaches\/luety01c.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyronn Lue<\/a> manages to reincorporate the veteran into the rotation, his playoff experience could be crucial for a team seeking to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>P.J. Tucker is reportedly taking a leave of absence from the Los Angeles Clippers, according to the Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania. Tucker will miss the Clippers&#8217; game tonight against the Golden State Warriors and will rejoin the team following the All-Star break. Amid three months of frustrations, PJ Tucker will be away from the Los Angeles [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4773,"featured_media":64035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,27,62,3],"tags":[202,4774,2282],"class_list":["post-64034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-clippers","category-nba","category-news","tag-nba-news","tag-rumors","tag-pj-tucker"],"modified_by":"Adam Echchaibi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4773"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}