On December 14, Beijing time, LeBron James, a Lakers star who had just won the best of the week, forwarded Horton Tucker's highlights of the game with the Magic on his personal social media, and wrote, "He is so special, he is him." ”
In the match against the Magic, Tucker Jr. scored 19 points and delivered a career-high 6 steals, performing well on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. However, according to NBA reporter Jordan Schultz, as many as 7 teams are currently interested in Horton Tucker and want to trade him, while the Lakers are hesitant to trade Tucker Jr.
In fact, the Lakers will hesitate, and it is not difficult to understand. In the offseason, Pelinka gave Tucker Jr. a three-year, $30.78 million contract, and gave up Caruso in order to keep him, which is enough to prove that the Lakers are optimistic about the potential of Tucker Jr., and Pelinka also likes him. But on the other hand, Tucker Jr. needs the ball, and the three-pointer is unstable, which also leads to his technical characteristics are not very suitable for the Lakers' big three, and many Lakers fans are also quite criticized for Vogel's decision to let him start.
And even in the game against the Magic, Tucker Jr. played well, but one game was not enough to change the problems that Tucker Jr. exposed this season. Coupled with the Lakers' current lack of No. 3 players in the squad, but in addition to the 3 giants, most of the players in the team are basically the only chips that can be used if they want to trade. In this case, it is not surprising that the Lakers have the idea of trading little Tucker within the Team.
So will Pelinka eventually be able to trade Tuck Jr.? I am afraid that this will be determined by three aspects, one is how much chips are offered by these 7 teams that are interested in Tucker Jr. Once there are really good front-line 3D players who are used as chips, then for the Lakers who are currently interested, the transaction is indeed a good choice.
The second is how Tucker Jr. performed. In fact, the Lakers do not need Tucker Jr. to attack with the ball, but also need him to shoot the three-pointer and do a good job of defense as he did in this game with the Magic. In fact, although Tucker's height is only 1 meter 93, his arm span has reached 2 meters 17, and his weight has reached 106 kilograms, which is very resistant. Therefore, if he can make full use of his arm span advantage, even if he is in the No. 3 position, he will not be particularly disadvantaged.
The third is to look at the results of the Lakers. If the Lakers just maintain the current situation of winning and losing, then they will inevitably need to change the situation through trading, and Tucker Jr. will probably leave the team; but if the Lakers' record can continue to pick up, then their trading possibilities will definitely decrease, and Tucker Jr. is estimated to be safe.
Tucker Jr. only completed the contract extension in the offseason this year, so until January 15th, he is in a non-tradable state, so the Lakers will have to observe him for at least another month or so, when the team's record, player performance and trading chips are the three factors, Pelinka will make the final decision.