How big of a loss would P.J. Tucker be for the Heat?

[Roy H.]

P.J. Tucker is getting an MRI on his knee.  If he's unable to return to the series, how much does that affect the Heat?

He's a 70-game starter who gives the Heat defense and shooting, along with around 8 points and 6 rebounds.  At age 37, he's arguably having the best season of his career.

Does that mean Dedmon gets the starting role?  Or do the Heat try to go even smaller?

(This is all speculative.)

[Celtics2021]

I think that’s a significant loss for them.  He’s a terrific defender, and he adds a ton to offensive rebounding with excellent boxing out, helping keep TL off the boards.  Offensive boards have really hurt the C’s so far, and they’ve gotten a higher percentage of offensive boards when he’s on compared to when he’s off.

[Phantom255x]

It's actually huge if he misses time, because he's one of their better frontcourt players. Then it'd literally put a lot more pressure on Bam to perform or Dedmon to really step up.

Tucker allows them to go small and he's also a pretty good defender, but without him they'd have to go smaller or trot out Dedmon for more minutes which I'm sure our offense would love lol

[wdleehi]

We saw what it looks like when a team is down two starters.   It is not good.   


If so, maybe the Heat have to lean into offense with a shooter like Robinson.   Make it harder to have Rob Williams be a roamer.   I don't think they will be able to replace the defense.   

Does Lowery come back sooner if this is the case?

[mqtcelticsfan]

It’s potentially series defining, I think. In addition to his interior defense, we’ve frequently seen him draw Tatum as an assignment so far. Losing Tucker means that Dedmon plays more, and probably that Bam or Butler have to pick up a lot of defensive responsibility that they could try to cover to get them some rest. Both are up to the challenge of guarding anybody, but in a series where Butler has been the only consistent offense, the added energy of defending Tatum might be huge.

[Vermont Green]

P.J. Tucker is getting an MRI on his knee.  If he's unable to return to the series, how much does that affect the Heat?

He's a 70-game starter who gives the Heat defense and shooting, along with around 8 points and 6 rebounds.  At age 37, he's arguably having the best season of his career.

Does that mean Dedmon gets the starting role?  Or do the Heat try to go even smaller?

(This is all speculative.)

MIA has very limited depth at PF and C.  Tucker has been playing 30 min per game in the playoffs.  Dedmon 10 minutes.  I think that is a big drop off going from Tucker to Dedmon.  And even if you bump Dedmon from 10 to 20 minutes, you still have another 20 minutes that you need to replace.  Due to their limited ability to replace Tucker with another big, I think this would be an impactful loss if it turns out to be true.

So I think what would happen is that MIA would get what they could out of Dedmon (again, maybe 20 minutes) but the balance of the minutes they probably would go with more of a small line up perhaps with Duncan Robinson playing many of those minutes and Jimmy Butler playing more of the Swing/PF role.  Butler is plenty good/strong enough to do that but Miami would end up with their best player playing out of position.  At 6'-7", Butler is actually longer than Tucker.  But with Dedmon playing more and Robinson playing more, that puts some lesser players on the court more than I am sure Miami would like.

I am not sure what happened with Duncan Robinson.  He started 68 games in the regular season.  Averaged 26 minutes.  His 3p% was down from prior years but still decent at 37%.  Probably the big issue is that he can't play the type of defense that Tucker can.  Tatum or Brown would likely torch Robinson.  But why has he gone for a mostly starter for the entire regular season to hardly playing in the playoffs?  Their top minutes line up in the regular season was Lowry, Robinson, Butler, Tucker, Adebayo.  Why play (and play well) all season with one line up but then change it for the playoffs?

[footey]

I think they would go smaller, probably insert Oladipo into starting lineup, and bring Robinson off bench.  Oladipo is still a good defender, but so far struggles on offense.

[GreenShooter]

I'm more worried if Lowry comes back next game. I also think Tucker will play if there's no structural damage. He seems like he can play through pain. But I'll take W's any way I can get them. Already been on the other side of injuries and what not.

[Phantom255x]

I'm more worried if Lowry comes back next game. I also think Tucker will play if there's no structural damage. He seems like he can play through pain. But I'll take W's any way I can get them. Already been on the other side of injuries and what not.

I actually would love to see Lowry come back. Sixers fans were actually bummed when he got hurt again, because the Sixers won in the two games Lowry played and he got wrecked in both of them on the defensive end. Lowry definitely isn't the same guy and I actually think Miami is better off continuing more with Strus and Vincent.

[Celtic Fan Forever]

I'm more worried if Lowry comes back next game. I also think Tucker will play if there's no structural damage. He seems like he can play through pain. But I'll take W's any way I can get them. Already been on the other side of injuries and what not.

I’m not. Vincent in the first 2 games has 15.5 points on 50% from the field and 47% from 3. Yeah his defense is shaky, but could we really expect much better from a hobbled 36 year old Lowry?

[GreenShooter]

I'm more worried if Lowry comes back next game. I also think Tucker will play if there's no structural damage. He seems like he can play through pain. But I'll take W's any way I can get them. Already been on the other side of injuries and what not.

I’m not. Vincent in the first 2 games has 15.5 points on 50% from the field and 47% from 3. Yeah his defense is shaky, but could we really expect much better from a hobbled 36 year old Lowry?

OK then, I guess we are ignoring where he shot .380/.360 and 8.4 ppg vs Atlanta and .380/.182 and 6.8 ppg vs. Philly and only looking at what he's done against Boston in 2 games.

[Moranis]

The fact that this thread exists tells you how weak and thin the Heat are and why Boston should absolutely win this series and win it easily.

I mean we have people on here chiding the Mavs thin front court, but the Heat are starting 100 year old PJ Tucker, Max Stus, and Gabe Vincent.  3 terrible starters.  Now obviously they have Herro on the bench and Lowry has been out, but you want to talk about a thin weak team, that is the Heat.

[footey]

The fact that this thread exists tells you how weak and thin the Heat are and why Boston should absolutely win this series and win it easily.

I mean we have people on here chiding the Mavs thin front court, but the Heat are starting 100 year old PJ Tucker, Max Stus, and Gabe Vincent.  3 terrible starters.  Now obviously they have Herro on the bench and Lowry has been out, but you want to talk about a thin weak team, that is the Heat.

Ironic since the one advantage the Heat supposedly had going into the series, according to the "experts", was their depth, i.e. their ability to go 9-10 deep.  But I agree with you, I always felt that was over-rated.

[kraidstar]

The fact that this thread exists tells you how weak and thin the Heat are and why Boston should absolutely win this series and win it easily.

I mean we have people on here chiding the Mavs thin front court, but the Heat are starting 100 year old PJ Tucker, Max Stus, and Gabe Vincent.  3 terrible starters.  Now obviously they have Herro on the bench and Lowry has been out, but you want to talk about a thin weak team, that is the Heat.

Yeah, outside of Butler,  Bam, and Herro, that roster is pretty weak. I think I'd take the Bucks' supporting cast over theirs.

[Roy H.]

The fact that this thread exists tells you how weak and thin the Heat are and why Boston should absolutely win this series and win it easily.

I mean we have people on here chiding the Mavs thin front court, but the Heat are starting 100 year old PJ Tucker, Max Stus, and Gabe Vincent.  3 terrible starters.  Now obviously they have Herro on the bench and Lowry has been out, but you want to talk about a thin weak team, that is the Heat.

Yeah, outside of Butler,  Bam, and Herro, that roster is pretty weak. I think I'd take the Bucks' supporting cast over theirs.

Really?

If you take out the "big three" on each team, you've got:

Miami:

Lowry
Tucker
Strus
Vincent
Robinson
Dedmon
Oladipo
Martin

Milwaukee:

Allen
Portis
Connaughton
Lopez
Hill
Matthews

I think that Miami is deeper, and I think they've got more top-end role players, too.