Clippers forward fined by NBA

Clippers forward P.J. Tucker has been fined $75K for publicly requesting a trade in comments that were reported last week, the NBA announced on Thursday.

As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, the maximum fine Tucker could have received was $150K.

The 38-year-old hasn’t seen action since Nov. 27 after initially playing a rotation role for the Clippers. He averaged just 1.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 14.4 minutes per game across 12 appearances off the bench for his new team, making 4-of-14 field-goal attempts (28.6 percent). He was sent to L.A. from Philadelphia in the James Harden trade.

Tucker has been unhappy with his role for much of the season, with reports of his discontent first surfacing in December. In the days and weeks that followed, he repeatedly expressed frustration with his lack of playing time. 

The Clippers reportedly made an effort to trade him at last Thursday’s deadline. However, he presumably had negative value on the trade market due to the $11.54M player option on his contract for next season, and L.A. didn’t find a deal.

The Clippers sent home both Tucker and Bones Hyland — another player who hasn’t been getting minutes — ahead of Wednesday’s win over Golden State. Both players are expected to return to the team after the All-Star break.