Announcement: P.J. Tucker Is The Unanimous MVZ (Most Valuable Zero) Of The NBA This Year
The Most Valuable Zero (MVZ) is a storied award I just made up that represents the NBA player who distinguishes himself in doing everything he can to not score points while still somehow helping his team win. This man is amazing. I love this man. I've now written two blogs in the past month dedicated solely to him. Honestly, that might not have been enough. He starts on the 76ers and utilizes a specific skillset in not scoring points. He does this with great success too as this effort has led the 76es to win 15/21 games this season in which he started and played at least 15 minutes with a big fat zero in the points column. But you know what? Dude still balls. Tucker might not score, but he absolutely fucks.
Here is the comprehensive list of every starting player (min 15 minutes played) in order of how many games they were a hero by deciding to not score any points so their teammates have a chance to be the hero.
In fairness to guys like Pat Beverly, totals are accumulated by what team they played for so he really has four instead of two.
21 total games for Tucker. 21. That's about 30 percent of the games he's played in. As a starter. Jevon Carter and Reggie Bullock are so far back in second place they could be replaced with a Yak member for the rest of the season and still have no hope of catching up:
Little lesson in NBA efficiency. Some players are efficient scorers and some are volume scorers. Efficient scorers typically shoot less often but pick the right spots. Think three-point specialists, or big men who take easy short shots. Then you have volume guys. Allen Iverson shot often but wasn't that efficient. This is what happens when you're in the NBA Finals but the rest of your team is composed of cucumbers. Then you have guys like Steph Curry. In his prime Steph was both an efficient and volume type scorer. That's what we have here with P.J. Tucker. Except the total opposite. He's the Steph Curry of not scoring with efficiency AND volume. Sure, Jevon Carter (tied for second on the list) may have a perfect 5/5 record in zero point games, but he's low volume.
I ran the same thing for last year for some perspective on just the top few guys to show how dominant 21 scoreless 15+ minute games is. Most was seven. Childs play.
Big time career move for P.J. to take his talents out of South Beach and head to Philadelphia to steal the crown from new and now former teammate Matisse Thybulle. Runner up no more. This man had a clear goal by signing with the 76ers and was a clear culture fit in standing around so Joel and James could do all the annoying point getting dirty work.
Cherry on Top
Not that he needed to but P.J. Tucker established his MVZ dominance just a few days ago with a scintillating perfect game going 0/0/0/0/0 (points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks). This performance puts him #6 in most minutes played in a Tony Snell game. Poor Tony Snell. No one remembers that Joel Anthony is actually the king with 29 perfect minutes unblemished by any worthwhile stat but anytime someone does this we all think of ole Tony.
Shout out Bruce Bowen for appearing on this chart twice. I hope one day someone goes the distance for all 48. Imagine this happening in a Finals game on June 2nd (National Donut Day).That would stand above Gretzky's assists, Wilt's 50 PPG in a season, Rikpen's games played. All of them.
I don't have a trophy for this award yet, but I think it would have to be a cast of a box of donuts. Dennis Rodman would give the introductory speech every year that sharply turns into an "actually he's not what you think" ramble on Kim Jon-Un. It'll be great. I'll pay per view that every year.
- Jeffro