Doc Rivers Defends Decision to Continue Starting PJ Tucker

PJ Tucker's faced a lot of criticism lately, but Doc Rivers makes it clear he'll remain a starter for the 76ers.

PJ Tucker’s time with the Philadelphia 76ers so far has been filled with tons of criticism. As Tucker signed a multi-year deal for over $30 million at 37 years old, Tucker’s production hasn’t sat well with fans of the Sixers.

In 21 games, Tucker has started and averaged a little under 30 minutes on the court. During that time, Tucker’s put up three points per game while averaging just 1.3 shot attempts per outing.

To say that box score spectators haven’t been kind to the veteran forward would be an understatement.

But Sixers head coach Doc Rivers hasn’t let up when defending Tucker and the veteran forward’s progress with the team so far this season.

Before the Sixers tipped off against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night, Rivers was posed with the question of whether the thriving veteran guard Shake Milton could realistically win a spot in the Sixers’ starting lineup when the team gets healthy again.

Rivers, who starts the ten-time All-Star James Harden and the rising star Tyrese Maxey, made it clear he has no intentions of having either of those guys come off the bench when they return from injury.

After being presented with a counter-question of who the Sixers should send to the bench in favor of Milton, a reporter suggested Tucker could be the odd-man-out, to which Rivers responded accordingly.

“I’ll go back to the Atlanta series [in 2021]. Why did we lose that series?” Rivers asked. “They were too big for us. There are going to be lineups where we’ll have three guards in the lineup, but the other thing I’m going to say with PJ because I can feel lately PJ’s been the whipping boy, who do you think is the highest plus-minus guy on our team?”

Clearly, Rivers was pointing out the fact that Tucker is winning in the Sixers’ plus-minus category as he leads the pack at plus-78, proving that the veteran’s value goes beyond scoring. Anybody that’s played with or against Tucker can attest to the fact that he’s useful in other categories, such as defense, spacing, vocal leadership, and making hustle plays.

While Rivers points out that anybody can win a starting job if earned over somebody else, sending Tucker to the bench based on his lack of scoring is and never will be an option in the eyes of Rivers as long as he’s running the 76ers.

“A guy can always win [a job in the starting lineup], I’m an extremely fair coach,” Rivers continued. “I think what we do is we look at points — that’s all we focus on. We don’t focus on like everything. I go back to the Milwaukee game. No PJ? We probably don’t win that game. I can go the four games, I can to Orlando with (Paolo) Banchero — he didn’t want to see PJ on the floor. This is not just an offensive game. You have to play both ends, and guys have to fit.”

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.