Houston Rockets: Why P.J. Tucker should start in place of Trevor Ariza

The Houston Rockets have found out that they’ll be without Trevor Ariza for a bit after sustaining a left hamstring injury against the Phoenix Suns Sunday afternoon. He’s expected to miss the team’s four-game road trip through next Friday. Although Luc Mbah a Moute is the presumptive starter, here’s my case as to why P.J. Tucker should get the start.

Houston Rockets fans — this is the opportunity for a lifetime for one of the better, under-the-radar pickups that we’ve had in quite some time. We know that Trevor Ariza will be out for awhile but because the immense amount of the depth that this team has to win games, the Houston Rockets should not miss a beat.

In past seasons, a Trevor Ariza loss would’ve been catastrophic not only to the team’s interior defense but three-point production as well. He’s fallen off slightly on both accounts as far as play this season but he still has tremendous value for his contract to which it will be expiring after the season. The 32-year-old small forward makes approximately $8 million a year.

He has been averaging 12.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.5 steals off 42.6 percent shooting from the field and 38.3 percent from three through 44 games this season. Although there is a sense of abatement in his numbers, they’re still enough to provide a valuable contribution this team. He’s not asked to be leading scorer or to snag a lot of rebounds but to do just a little of everything. And for what it’s worth, Ariza has done exactly that.

It’s a long path ahead but this is certainly one of the moments where Daryl Morey will be using this situation as feeler to see if Ariza is worth re-signing this off season. I don’t think he’ll command a lot of money as I think he wants to be here but I’d imagine Morey will let him go test the market before offering any type of deal to him.

This was similar to the situation with Nene when the complications of the “Over-38 rule” in the CBA caused him to miss out on a year of guaranteed money. He eventually decided to agree to a deal with the Houston Rockets for one year less, making it a three-year, $10 million pact. It was basically the original offer with one less year attached.

We’ll have to keep an eye on what happens on that front but let’s talk about the now.

Tucker is highly-underrated for his gritty style of play, his defense and can do just a little bit of everything like Ariza can. He hasn’t missed significant time since the 2014-15 season where he missed a total of four games.

He’s the Cal Ripken Jr. of the Houston Rockets as well as likely the rest of the league in every sense of the word and this notion would be highlighted even more if he started on regular basis. Tucker could start for many teams but I imagine he wanted to come to H-Town because of his pursuit of a championship and the lesser amount of minutes being a prolong his career as he approaches 33 years of age.

Tucker signed the EXACT same deal that Ariza signed back in 2014 for four years, $32 million.

He hasn’t missed a game this season and has averaged 5.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in 26.8

More from House of Houston

minutes per game. Although his defensive win shares (.035) lag behind team leader Mbah a Moute (.055), Eric Gordon (.044), James Harden (.037), Chris Paul (.037) but slightly ahead of Ariza (.034), I think with the opportunity to play more minutes, he can make more of a impression on the hardwood.

You can make every case for Mbah a Moute to get the start as he’s 7th in the league in DWS but I think to preserve his health, he should come off the bench as he’s already had issues this season.

I think Tucker can handle the extra workload better and Mike D’Antoni won’t be sorry he made such a decision. He won’t do it but I’m just throwing it out there because of what I’ve seen in this guy over the years.

Next: What a re-sign of Bobby Brown means to fans

We’ll find out later on who’s starting but my vote goes for Mr. P.J. Tucker.

Go Rockets.

Home/Houston Rockets