Less than a week after their NBA Finals loss to the Boston Celtics, the Dallas Mavericks are going right back to the drawing board.
Veteran NBA writer Marc Stein reported Saturday on Substack that the Mavericks will be resuming their long-running search to trade veteran wing Tim Hardaway Jr. Stein notes that Hardaway, 32, is about to enter the final year of his contract at $16.2 million (a drop from the $17.9 million he made this season). That makes it more likely that Dallas will be able to trade him.
The former first-round pick Hardaway has been on the Mavericks for the last six seasons and is a 36.0 percent career three-point shooter who can score buckets in a hurry. Hardaway just averaged 14.4 points per game over 79 regular season appearances and even got a vote for Sixth Man of the Year.
But Hardaway largely fell out of favor in the playoffs, getting DNPs in every series except for the second round against Oklahoma City (when Dallas was shorthanded due to an injury to Maxi Kleber). He did have one garbage-time explosion in Game 4 of the Finals when he somehow erupted for five three-pointers in a half-quarter. But for the most part, Hardaway’s hot-and-cold shooting and his below-average defense make him more of a postseason liability than anything at this point.
Ideally, Dallas might want to target a more consistent No. 3 scorer alongside Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic. While they may not necessarily be able to get positive trade value out of just Hardaway, there is at least one interesting buy-low option available out there right now.
