It’s taken some time, most of which has come away from the court, but P.J. Tucker is starting to find his place within the Milwaukee Bucks.
After the Bucks completed their successful pursuit of Tucker last month after months of interest, Tucker was subsequently sidelined with a left calf strain that kept him out action for 11 games since coming to Milwaukee. Long been accustomed to play through pain and injury and been recognized as an iron man, Tucker even noted that being out of action for that long was out of character for him to Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription required).
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It’s safe to say Tucker has made up for lost time since making his return in the Bucks’ overwhelming win over the Minnesota Timberwolves earlier this month.
Tucker has steadily ramped up his minutes and role for the Bucks since returning from his left calf strain and has only missed one game in this time, which came during the Bucks’ loss to the Atlanta Hawks on the second night of a back-to-back.
And ramping up his minutes culminated in Tucker playing 25-and-a-half minutes of action off the bench in the Bucks’ win over the Charlotte Hornets Tuesday night, the most he’s posted since coming to Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Bucks are betting hard on P.J. Tucker going into their playoff run
It was throughout the course of the Bucks’ win in Charlotte where Tucker showed exactly the Bucks envisioned out of him when pulling the trigger to bring him to Milwaukee.
Whether it was the trademark heart and hustle he as long provided or the steel he showed when defending off the ball or boxing out in front of the basket and Tucker has been providing what the Bucks have been missing. Just look at Tucker chase down this long rebound to the point he’s wrestling for it after diving for it on the floor.
Tucker ultimately finished with five points on 2-of-3 shooting (1-for-2 from three), four rebounds, a steal in the win.
As a whole, Tucker’s arrival has coincided with the Bucks not only switching more defensively, but being more successful in getting stops while in those moments, which has not always been the case. The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor recently noted of the success the Bucks have recently had in switching based on Second Spectrum stats in his latest column:
"“The Bucks switched only 10 percent of screens over their first 20 games, but have more than doubled that rate over their last 20 games to 24 percent. Over the full season, this would be the eighth-most frequent rate of switching in the entire league. Milwaukee has also improved at getting stops with switches. In the last 20 games, they’ve allowed only 0.92 points per chance, which ranks 11th during this time frame and would rank eighth over the full season.”"
Tucker’s presence has undoubtedly helped spark that success and the Bucks will continue turning to him in providing such a valuable role for this Bucks team. Hopefully Tucker can continue to stay healthy (knock on wood) to do exactly that.