Boston Celtics: top-3 scrappiest players in the NBA
By Mark Nilon
P.J. Tucker
The next player on our list may be taller than the others that have/ will be mentioned, but is still much smaller than how he plays. At just 6-5, 14 year veteran P.J. Tucker finds himself as the current holder of the starting center position for the Houston Rockets.
Though not a star by any means, Tucker has managed to make a name for himself over the years as a reliable 3-and-D specialist — which makes it all the more obvious that he finds himself with Head Coach Mike D’Antoni and the Houston Rockets.
As the team’s starting five, Tucker has been forced to go up against the likes of the league’s towering centers such as Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Nikola Jokic, just to name a few. And, due to his scrappy/ fiery nature, he’s managed to hold his own despite being 5+ inches smaller than all the aforementioned talents.
Whether it be diving for a loose ball, going for a block or stepping up to an opposing player’s back down, when it comes to effort plays that often don’t make it’s way onto the stat sheet, P.J. Tucker is right smack dab in the middle of it.