Don't Pass The Ball To Tim Hardaway Jr

The NBA defines ‘Clutch Time’ as the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points.

On Thursday night, I watched my beloved New York Knicks travel to Dallas. They lost 124-128 and although the score looked close, the Mavericks were in complete control the entire game. And that was without Luka Doncic in the lineup. Kyrie Irving took over.

Here’s what Kyrie did against the Knicks this week:

44 points
15-for-26 from the field (57%)
6-for-10 from 3
8-for-9 from the line
10 assists
4 rebounds
2 steals

Kyrie sees Knicks jerseys in front of him and turns into 1988 Michael Jordan.

But Tim Hardway Jr—the former Knick—caught my eye the most in this game.

He finished with 32 points and scored all of those when the Mavericks were up at least 20 points. In the 4th quarter, the Knicks were down as much as 18 points. New York stormed back to get the score as close to 1 point margin.

Clutch time is the final five minutes of the 4th quarter in a 5-point game. Here’s what Tim Hardaway did in Clutch Time:

PLEASE FUCKING LOOK AT THIS pic.twitter.com/Xj8EX5wyFq https://t.co/7h1gySawK3

— Coopz (@Coopz___) January 12, 2024

Tim Hardaway Jr checked in with 4 minutes and 44 seconds left in the 4th quarter. Dallas was up 117-104 and Hardaway had 30 points. He missed every shot he took and only made two free throws after an intentional foul at the end.

The game was slipping away from Dallas and Tim Hardaway Jr was chucking up BRICKS when they needed him most.

On the season, Hardaway Jr is shooting 0% in Clutch Time. He’s 0-for-5 from the field and 0-for-4 from 3. But to be fair to Tim, it’s a small sample size. Let’s look at his Clutch Time stats from last season.

Oh.

No.

Hardaway was 2-for-16 (and 1-for-12 from 3).

Can the Mavericks win with Tim Hardaway Jr?

Thankfully, Luka Doncic is second in usage rate.

He always has the ball in his hands which means Tim Hardaway Jr doesn’t. And if it’s not Luka, it’s Kyrie Irving. Dallas doesn’t necessarily need to ever run an offensive play for Hardaway.

This is Tim Hardaway’s 11th NBA season and the biggest moment of his career has been a shootout with Dion Waiters in the Rookie/Sophomore game a decade ago.

If I’m running the Mavs, I don’t even want Hardaway on the floor in a close game. He’ll miss every shot and isn’t quick enough to stay in front of anyone on defense.

Luka and Kyrie are a great 1-2 combo. Rookie center, Dereck Lively, quickly became the lob threat Doncic needed to unlock a new way to attack defenses by penetrating the paint and then hitting Lively with easy oops when his defender went at Luka. Derrick Jones Jr and Grant Williams are plus defenders who can hit some open shots. Given a bigger role, I feel like Josh Green and Jaden Hardy could make a real impact.

And Tim Hardaway Jr plays basketball like it’s some fun activity he does in his free time and the second it becomes a real, intense NBA game, he mentally goes home.

There is no better basketball player in the league than Tim Hardaway Jr when Luka Doncic gets triple-teamed and kicks it out to him for a wide-open 3 to extend the Mavs lead from 17 to 20.

Tim Hardaway Jr is unstoppable when his head starts bobbing back and forth like Kaa trying to hypnotize Mowgli in The Jungle Book.

How can the Mavs improve?

Tim Hardaway Jr’s contract ends in 2025. He’s stuck here for the rest of this year and one more year next season.

But there are rumors the Mavericks are interested in Pascal Siakam which means Hardaway Jr would have to be included in the deal to make the salaries match. Siakam would be a perfect piece to upgrade from Hardaway. Pascal can score in more diverse ways and can actually utilize his size defensively.

Siakam also doesn’t suck in Clutch Time like Hardaway. No one in the NBA does.