When he was only 20 years old, Talen Horton-Tucker was playing meaningful postseason minutes for the Los Angeles Lakers. But before even turning 25, he was out of the NBA altogether.
Heading into this season, then, Horton-Tucker had to go to Europe. He had to rebuild his career if ever he was going to make it back into the NBA. But the good news is, he has done that. And therefore, he might.
In 32 EuroLeague games this season for Turkish giants Fenerbahce, the defending champions, Horton-Tucker has averaged 16.2 points per game. He has done so in only 23.5 minutes per contest, while shooting 50.7% from the field, and posting a .598 true shooting percentage. The scoring is the tenth-best mark in the competition, and Fenerbahce are once again at the top of the standings – being the best player on the best team is the best outcome that could have been hoped for from his European endeavor.
Horton-Tucker’s Lakers Days
Horton-Tucker entered the NBA as the 46th overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, and played the next six seasons in the league. In total – or at least, to date – he appeared in 305 regular-season games and primarily operating as a combo-ish guard with secondary ball-handling responsibilities. He finished (or paused) his NBA career with averages of 9.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game, shooting 42.7% from the field and 29.9% from three-point range.
Most of that time was spent with the Lakers, who acquired Horton-Tucker’s draft rights on the night of the draft, giving up a 2020 second-round pick (that would later be used on Paul Reed) and $2.2 million to the Orlando Magic to do so. As a rookie in 2019â20, he played a limited role, but was part of the roster during the postseason and was a member of the Lakers’ “bubble” team that won the 2020 NBA Championship. His role expanded in the 2020-21 season, when he appeared in 65 games and averaged 9.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists in just over 20 minutes per game.
Horton-Tucker re-signed to a three-year, $32 million contract after the 2020-21 season, but never made it to the end of it in Los Angeles. In August 2022, after its first year, Horton-Tucker was traded to the Utah Jazz along with the similarly rejuvenated Stanley Johnson in exchange for Patrick Beverley. His first season in Utah was the highest-scoring year of his NBA career, as he averaged 10.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists across 65 games. Horton-Tucker remained with Utah for the 2023â24 season, appearing in 51 games and averaging another 10.1 points – however, while his scoring remained consistent with the previous year, his efficiency declined. And efficiency had never been a strong suit.
Difficult Mid-Career
Where once he had been a coveted young star with potential off the dribble, Horton-Tucker never made the next steps to level up beyond that. He did not improve a huge amount as an outside shooter, the major weakness in his offensive game, and if anything, he seemed to get slower, making it harder to both get to and finish at the rim.
Perhaps overcompensating for that, Horton-Tucker began to isolate more. Too much, in fact. He never had the consistent shake in his dribble to be a consistent isolation scorer, nor did he have the pull-up game to offset that – as such, as his career truncated, far too much of Horton-Tucker’s time was spent overdribbling, slowing things down, and then trying to force the action into gaps that were not there.
In one final NBA go-around, Horton-Tucker signed with the Chicago Bulls for the 2024-25 season. His role was reduced, as he appeared in 58 games without making a start and averaged 6.5 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 12.5 minutes per game. But the lowest usage rate of his career did not result in increased efficiency. And with the book on him largely written after six years,
Horton-Tucker’s Turkish Rejuvenation
The good news is that, in Turkiye, Horton-Tucker seems to have find those gaps again. And he is also engaging with the defensive end that perhaps always should have been his best one. Using his 7’1 wingspan to good effect, Horton-Tucker is playing as a three-position defender and useful rebounder, while also leading the team in blocks, and he has guard help in the forms of Wade Baldwin IV and Nando de Colo to draw the defensive attention that allows him to attack less set defenses.
In the NBA, he was neither the primary ball-handler nor the three-and-D guy, neither the playmaker nor the shooter, neither the one nor the two. In the EuroLeague, though, he can be the combo guard who covers all ground and gets into the trees. There is a pep back in his step, and while the playing style has not (and will not) transform, the margins have improved. From an overdribbler, Horton-Tucker has become a threat again.
To be a volume scorer whose youthful promise burns out quickly, and who needs a second wind to get back into the NBA, is not a new path. Far from it. Cole Anthony, for example, is another such player – where so recently he was a 16 points per game scorer, he is now out of the league, waiting for the phone to ring. What Horton-Tucker has done, though, is prove himself in the European market already. And from there, he can either choose to stay and make his fortunes there, or try and use it as a springboard back to the states.
While it does not have the Chet Holmgren or Scottie Barnes-esque Defensive Player of the Year candidates with unparalleled range that the NBA gobbles up, the EuroLeague is a physical and talented league replete with former NBA players, future NBA players, and players who could be in the NBA if they so chose. It augurs well, then, that Horton Tucker has arrived in it ready to go. Maybe he stays there. Maybe he comes back. Either way, he stopped the decline.
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