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

[JohnBoy65]

I think PJ Tucker the player is a bit overrated. He passes up open shots, defensively Tatum has had no problem scoring, so what does he do? Now I would agree that his absence makes worse front court players play, but I don't know. PJ Tucker isn't a guy that Miami needs to win. Grant is more important to Boston than PJ is to Miami

[letsgoblue86]

I guess Dedmon takes his minutes which probably doesn’t change anything defensively but limits the heat’s ability to stretch the floor.

[Csfan1984]

1 being low impact, 10 high impact. I'd give it a 7. They rely on him to have some timely offensive game impact, be another physical presence and a very good switch defender. Probably their 5th or 6th best player.

[sgrogan]

I guess Dedmon gets some more minutes.
We may see break the glass in case of emergency Markieff Morris

[JohnBoy65]

I guess Dedmon takes his minutes which probably doesn’t change anything defensively but limits the heat’s ability to stretch the floor.

I just think people are giving him too much credit. Through this years playoffs he's made 1.3 3s per game. He's not a threat offensively, and I think his defense is overrated. Everyone fawned over him last year guarding KD in the Bucks/Heat series. KD averaged 35 points a game on 50/36 splits. At this point in his career Tucker is a bit overrated.

[Birdman]

Huge..his leadership and a veteran player will be a huge lost

[Roy H.]

Barry Jackson @flasportsbuzz
1 minute ago
Tucker and Lowry traveling to Boston at this hour, but that means nothing regarding their status for Game 3. Status reports for tomorrow coming later today

[BitterJim]

The biggest issue the Heat would face if he misses time is that he's pretty irreplicable (at least on their current roster). Their backcourt has a lot of replaceability (missing any of Strus, Herro, Robinson, Vincent, or Oladipo would have an impact, but the others could play more minutes to cover), while their frontcourt is very thin. Missing either Butler or Bam would basically guarantee a loss, and while losing Tucker wouldn't be at that same level it'd be closer than any other player on the team. Losing him would be comparable to us losing any of our starters (other than Jayson and Jaylen).

[tonydelk]

Defensively a huge loss but Duncan Robinson and dipo will get those minutes.  Robinson spaces the floor and provides scoring but bam and Jimmy will need to step up and if the cs attack they can get one in foul trouble.  If they can get Jimmy in foul trouble it's game over.  He's playing at another level and he's accounting for giannis level of production for the heat that giannis did for the bucks.  Without Jimmy they'd have lost the last game by 50 and game 1 by 20.

[keevsnick]

About a 260 pound loss by the looks of him.

In all seriousness pretty big. Without him AND Lowry one of Tatum/Brown will be matchup up against a subpar defender every trip.

[mqtcelticsfan]

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.

I think their idea is that Vincent was already really good as starting PG the first two games and it wasn’t a series changer, but I agree that Vincent starting over Lowry favors Boston regardless.

[greg683x]

 Perhaps I’m alone here but I’ve been happy to see that Duncan Robinson has been buried on the Heats bench.  I feel like he’s always on fire when we play them.

I would guess losing Tucker would free him into the game, especially since we saw him make an appearance last night after PJ went out.  I know Pj provides defense and another big body, Duncan’s also a defensive liability, but he can also rack up 25 points on any given night

[Sophomore]

Huge loss. If Tucker is out, who takes his minutes guarding Tatum? Jimmy Butler? Doubt they want Butler to have to work that hard on defense (or get into foul trouble). And if they do that, who slides over to take Brown? Strus or Robinson? Jaylen would eat.

Their backup center situation is also a mess; Dedmon is really showing his limits.

[sgrogan]

The biggest issue the Heat would face if he misses time is that he's pretty irreplicable (at least on their current roster). Their backcourt has a lot of replaceability (missing any of Strus, Herro, Robinson, Vincent, or Oladipo would have an impact, but the others could play more minutes to cover), while their frontcourt is very thin. Missing either Butler or Bam would basically guarantee a loss, and while losing Tucker wouldn't be at that same level it'd be closer than any other player on the team. Losing him would be comparable to us losing any of our starters (other than Jayson and Jaylen).

I think this is the key. It doesn't really matter how good he is, if his replacement is worse then MIA is in trouble.
And finding a suitable replacement for matchups with BOS is going to be tough for them.

[Vermont Green]

Barry Jackson @flasportsbuzz
1 minute ago
Tucker and Lowry traveling to Boston at this hour, but that means nothing regarding their status for Game 3. Status reports for tomorrow coming later today

Great update.  I guess Tucker would not be traveling to Boston if the MRI revealed structural damage or anything serious.  My understanding based on the reporting I have seen is that he has a "Knee Contusion".   I don't know if that is worse than a bone bruise like GWill had but it sounds very day to day to me.

As to Lowry, I don't think him playing or not is as much of a factor as Tucker is.  MIA has replacements for Lowry (Vincent, Herro, Oladipo) who are playing fine.  Is 36 year old Lowry coming off injury really that much if any of an upgrade for them?  I don't want to poke the bear but I am not concerned about Lowry.

Now Tucker, losing him feels like an impactful downgrade.  They don't have anywhere near the depth where Tucker plays in the same way they have depth where Lowry plays.  If Tucker does not play, some far lesser players are going to see a lot more minutes.