Tim Hardaway Jr. is leaving Denver in NBA free agency to sign a one-year, $6.5 million contract with the Miami Heat, according to a report by ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Hardaway, 34, spent one season with the Nuggets on a veteran minimum deal. He averaged 13.5 points off the bench on 40.7% perimeter shooting, helping Denver lead the league in 3-point efficiency. The 6-foot-5 guard played 80 games and finished third place for NBA Sixth Man of the Year. He made the second-most 3s ever for a Nuggets player in a single season (224), trailing only Jamal Murray — who made 245 the same year.
The Nuggets didn’t have Bird rights to Hardaway because they hadn’t rostered him for three seasons. They had access to only the veteran minimum and non-Bird exceptions as mechanisms to re-sign him in free agency, limiting their ability to compete with other offers.
Basically, they could only pay him a fraction of what Miami offered due to the rules of the NBA collective bargaining agreement.
“I think itap the best contract in the league right now,” Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon said in April in regard to Hardaway’s vet minimum with Denver.
The Heat will be Hardaway’s sixth team. He becomes the first player to be teammates with Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. He has also crossed paths with Dirk Nowitzki and Carmelo Anthony over the course of his 13-year career.
By suiting up for Miami, Hardaway also follows in his father’s footsteps. Tim Hardaway Sr. made three All-NBA teams with the Heat in the 1990s.
