Tim Hardaway, Jr. finally cracking Atlanta’s rotation?
By John Buhler
Tim Hardaway, Jr. has seen playing time of late for the Atlanta Hawks. Does this mean that he has finally cracked Mike Budenholzer’s difficult rotation?
Tim Hardaway, Jr. came to the Atlanta Hawks on a 2015 NBA Draft Day trade with the New York Knicks, as the Atlanta Hawks traded away the draft rights to Notre Dames’ Jerian Grant, who Atlanta had acquired from the Washington Wizards for the draft rights to Kansas’ Kelly Oubre.
Atlanta had received the No. 15 overall draft pick in the 2015 NBA Draft because of a sneaky-good rights to a pick swap with the Brooklyn Nets orchestrated by former Hawks general manager Danny Ferry, who ironically may end up as the next general manager for the dysfunctional Nets front office.
While Tim Hardaway, Jr. was a collegiate standout for head coach John Beilein at the University of Michigan, Hardaway failed to live up to lofty expectations in his first two years in the Association playing for the New York Knicks. His erratic jump shooting and matador defense essentially labeled him as a draft bust to carve out a bench role in the NBA strictly on who his father was.
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Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer eyed Tim Hardaway, Jr. as one of the three guys he would take with the No. 17 overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. The Milwaukee Bucks selected small forward Giannis Antetokounmpo No. 13 overall, Atlanta drafted point guard Dennis Schroder at No. 17, and Hardaway went No. 24 to the Knicks.
Budenholzer’s decision to trade for Tim Hardaway, Jr. this past summer was one many Hawks fans questioned. Surely Coach Bud could use Hardaway’s strong outside shot, but was his defense ever going to merit regular playing time on a contending NBA team?
Tim Hardaway, Jr. did not play his first game with the Atlanta Hawks in the 2015-16 NBA season until November 24th in Philips Arena against the Boston Celtics, the Hawks’ 16th game of the campaign. While Hardaway would go on to play in the Hawks’ next three games, once the calendar flipped to December he never saw NBA action until very recently.
After a few stints in the NBA’s D-League, Tim Hardaway, Jr. made his triumphant return to the court for the Atlanta Hawks when he played in the second on an abbreviated back-to-back against the New York Knicks on January 5th. Hardaway has now played in seven straight games. Does this mean he has finally cracked Mike Budenholzer’s Fort Knox-like bench rotation?
Outside of the tough road loss in Milwaukee on Friday night, Tim Hardaway, Jr. has played in at least 10 minutes of the Atlanta Hawks’ last seven games. He actually played the seventh-most minutes for the team in their win over the Orlando Magic on MLK Day behind only the starters and wing Thabo Sefolosha at 19 minutes and 22 seconds of playing time.
While he has yet to eclipse eight points in any particular game this season off the Atlanta Hawks’ bench, it seems that Tim Hardaway, Jr. has earned that 10th spot in the Atlanta rotation behind the starting five, Schroder, Sefolosha, center Tiago Splitter, and forward Mike Scott.
Hardaway’s playing time has come at the expense of Lamar Patterson‘s inefficient play on defense (108 defensive rating) and Justin Holiday‘s inefficient play on offense (78 offensive rating). Hardaway’s offensive rating of 94 and defensive rating of 108 aren’t anything to write home about, but for now it seems that the third-year NBA veteran has finally cracked a strong Atlanta Hawks’ bench rotation.
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He’s shooting at a higher clip from three-point land at 26.3% and turning the basketball over at a less-frequent of 1.4 per 100 possessions than Patterson (25.6%, 2.7) and Holiday (23.8%, 2.5). Will Tim Hardaway, Jr. become the No. 3 wing player the Hawks need behind Kent Bazemore and Thabo Sefolosha in the second half? We’ll just have to wait and see.