Veteran wing Tim Hardaway Jr. has reached an agreement to join the Heat, league sources tell NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link). According to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), it’ll be a one-year, $6.5MM deal.
After earning $16MM or more for eight straight seasons, Hardaway accepted a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Nuggets last summer in the hopes of playing a key role on their second unit and contending for a title.
Hardaway held up his end of the bargain in Denver, scoring 13.5 points per game and converting 40.7% of his three-point attempts en route to a third-place finish in Sixth Man of the Year voting. However, a Nuggets team that battled injuries all season long had an abbreviated playoff run that ended with a first-round loss to Minnesota.
Returning to free agency this offseason, Hardaway once again has a path to a significant role for a team that hopes to contend. Having sacrificed much of their depth in their blockbuster deal to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo, Miami is in the market for reliable role players to complement Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo, and Hardaway fits the bill. His ability to space the floor makes him a logical fit next to that frontcourt duo.
The Heat are facing a bit of a cap crunch as they look to fill out their roster while remaining below their first-apron hard cap, but they have enough flexibility to use a portion of the mid-level exception.
Hardaway’s $6.5MM will come out of the mid-level and the team remains in position to offer about $6MM+ in additional MLE money to another free agent, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. That projection would change if the club were to make a trade to shed some of its current salary, but there’s no indication anything is imminent.
Hardaway’s father, Tim Hardaway Sr., spent five-plus seasons with the Heat from 1996-2001, earning a pair of All-Star berths during his time with the franchise.
