NBA: 7 under-appreciated players whose impact goes beyond the box score

NBA Boston Celtics Marcus Smart (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
NBA Boston Celtics Marcus Smart (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
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NBA Houston Rockets P.J. Tucker (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

5. P.J. Tucker, Houston Rockets

Current stats: 8.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.4 spg, 0.4 bpg

When the Houston Rockets lost both Trevor Ariza and Luc Richard Mbah A Moute, they suffered a major blow on the wing. But at least they didn’t get rid of P.J. Tucker who may not light up the box score on a nightly basis but you can bet he’s going to bring grittiness, toughness and defence as well as an all-around winning attitude.

As well as his defence and rebounding – which both should get P.J. a ton of credit – it also helps that he is currently connecting on 38.3 percent of his 3-point attempts this season and that’s with him taking almost five per game. It could even be argued that with Chris Paul and now Clint Capela going down, Tucker is the Rockets’ second most important player behind James Harden.