Mavericks film room: How Tim Hardaway Jr. has become a quality third option由Mavs.Ben 发表在Big D https://bbs.hupu.com/688
I remember sitting in the press conference room at the American Airlines Center on Sept. 30, 2019. Notable players file in and out of the room on Media Day, usually reciting some generic quotes about how they can’t wait for the season to arrive, their goal of making the playoffs, so on and so forth. Then Tim Hardaway Jr. got behind the podium and said something that made my ears perk up.
“When those guys were playing with one another, Steve (Nash) and Dirk (Nowitzki), you know Mike Finley was on the team and he was a little bit older than those guys,” Hardaway Jr. said. “I feel like that will probably be my role.”
We’re not going to get into the merits of comparing Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis to Nash and Nowitzki, nor will we compare Hardaway to Finley – at least not today. But Hardaway’s statement was significant because he set quite a high bar for himself. His arrival in Dallas will forever be remembered as part of “the Kristaps Porzingis trade,” yet there he was implying he would be a top-three player on a team with playoff aspirations.
And he delivered. We can debate whether or not he’s the bona-fide third-best player on this team — Tim Cato and I did so earlier this week — because the Mavericks have a cluster of players who can fit the bill. But there’s no denying that Hardaway is in that cluster, and there’s no denying that he’s in the top three in a number of statistical categories, including total points, field goal attempts and 3-point attempts. In our series of spotlighting players leading up to the late July restart, we’re going to look at where Hardaway’s game was when the NBA hit pause on March 11th.
Season stats: 63 games: 15.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists (all per game), 43.7 FG percent, 40.7 3-point percent, 80.1 FT percent
Hardaway was one of a few Mavericks playing really well when the season came to a halt. His last game was a personal dud, but it came in the 16-point win over the Denver Nuggets. In the bigger picture of recent play, Hardaway was statistically above his season average almost across the board in the month of games before the season stopped. That run of games started right around when Doncic returned from his late January ankle injury.
Hardaway’s success this season is a tale of two situations. For the first 13 games, he came off the bench and was scoring 10.2 points per game with a True Shooting of 46.3 in 22 minutes per game. For the next 50 games, Hardaway was inserted into the starting lineup and scoring 17.3 points per game in 30 minutes. However, the starkest difference came in True Shooting, which shot up to 60.5 percent. There may be a number of explanations for the difference, but one of the primary ones is certainly the change in players around him. A player like Hardaway benefits greatly when he’s alongside Doncic running the show and Porzingis spacing the floor.
Hardaway is a scorer. His defense is fine — 0.45 DRPM, 19th among NBA shooting guards this season — and he even dishes out a couple of dimes per game, but that’s not why he’s a difference-maker. He’s a scorer, and more specifically, he’s a long-distance shooter. When breaking up distances in eight-foot increments, 57 percent (452 shots) of Hardaway’s 792 total shot attempts come from beyond 24 feet. Another 175 attempts come from within eight feet and the rest of them (163 shots) fall in between (eight to 24 feet). The rim and midrange presence is certainly, there but most of the shots come from deep. Of those 3-pointers, 339 come between the left and right wing, where he’s a 38.3 percent shooter. He’s taken 46 shots from the left corner, where he’s 41.3 percent and his most efficient area is the right corner, where he’s made 52.2 percent of his 67 attempts. Of his 346 made field goals, 236 have been assisted and 110 were unassisted. For perspective on what the other side of that looks like, of Doncic’s 512 makes, 96 are assisted and 416 are unassisted. So while Hardaway has the ability to create his own shot, ball rotation plays a big role in getting him quality looks — which to his credit, he’s done a good job of knocking down.
Catch-and-shoot
Hardaway has done a good job of figuring out certain teammate’s tendencies and navigating the floor within the system in a way that sets him up to be an available outlet if needed. Sometimes, that comes from moving all over the floor, while other times it’s simply staying put and letting the defense react to the ball-handler and trusting him to make the right decision.
Here’s a play where you see Hardaway making his way from the left corner over to the right while the action is happening on the other side. The Mavericks run a pick-and-roll from the left wing with Courtney Lee and Maxi Kleber. Once Kleber peels off the pick, Lee hits him in stride heading towards the basket. Now the Pacers defense is in a pickle, and the Mavericks are able to turn five-on-five basketball into a man advantage.
First, you see the benefit of having a player like Porzingis on the floor. The defender matched up with him is center Myles Turner, whom Porzingis is able to draw out from the paint. Doncic will always require the attention of at least one defender. Because of a well-executed pick-and-roll, the two defenders on Lee and Kleber are left out of position, and so the play ends with the Mavericks having a two-on-one. Hardaway stays put in the right corner, and his defender has to make the decision to peel off and commit to Kleber to prevent the easy basket, leaving Hardaway wide open. Kleber holds drives as deep as possible so he can separate the defender from Hardaway as much as possible before making the pass. As mentioned above, the right corner 3-pointer is Hardaway’s shot, and he knocks it down.
A lot of Hardaway’s corner looks come like that, when defenders either lose track of him or just decide to offer help defense. The example above is one from a well-orchestrated play. The one below is a benefit of sharing the floor with a great playmaker. Look at how much room he has after camping out in the left corner simply because Doncic driving from the other side attracts four defenders.
Though Hardaway misses this particular shot, these are the looks he often knocks down. It’s a good representation of why his efficiency is so drastically different as a starter with Doncic on the floor versus playing with the second unit. In fact, of all Mavericks two-man lineups this season that have played at least 40 games, Doncic and Hardaway have an offensive rating of 117.7. That barely runs second to Hardaway and Dorian Finney-Smith, who are at 117.8.
Another part of Hardaway working the floor comes in transition, which is important with Doncic because he likes to push the ball up while the defense is still trying to get back and get set. Here’s an example of Hardaway setting up again in the right corner to knock down a transition 3-pointer.
To emphasize again the chemistry with Doncic, Hardaway has been assisted by Doncic 77 times this season, more than double second-placed Delon Wright’s 32.
In this next play, Hardaway plays a solid two-man game with Porzingis. While going through his growing pains earlier in the season, Porzingis would mention how Hardaway was somebody who was easy to play off of because of their time together with the Knicks. Here you see Porzingis receive the ball at the top and, after a quick hesitation, drive towards the basket. Hardaway, standing at the free-throw line, recognizes this and replaces Porzingis behind the 3-point line, where Porzingis finds him for a wide-open look.
Off the dribble
We started with Hardaway’s catch-and-shoot abilities because that is where most of his shots come from. In fact, nearly half of his shot attempts (351/792) have come without taking a single dribble, and he’s made 44.4 percent of them. He has taken 222 shots when taking three or more dribbles, shooting 43.7 percent on such attempts, so that’s also a part of his game.
Sometimes this comes in isolation, where Hardaway simply sizes up his defender and takes the shot. This doesn’t happen too often because of the nature of the Mavericks offense running through Doncic, but Hardaway is certainly comfortable doing it.
And again from the same spot, but this time not settling for a deep 3-pointer and instead taking it in for a layup.
More commonly, Hardaway comes off of picks or is part of quality team ball rotation, where he’s able to take the defender off the dribble. Most of these, both from deep or inside, are pretty simple. Here’s an example of that in his midrange game:
A variation of his standard jump shot that has started to show up a little more recently is the running floater, which is tough but effective when there’s a quick window to get the shot up:
Hardaway deserves a lot of credit for the player he’s become this year. While playing with Doncic makes life easier thanks to the attention he attracts and the passes he makes, it also takes some adjustment to fit in the flow with a player who has the second-highest usage percentage in the NBA. Hardaway is a volume shooter, but he’s learned how to pick his spots and adapt his game so that Doncic can orchestrate the offense the way he needs to and Hardaway can still contribute at a high level. He’s the third-best scorer on the highest-rated offense in NBA history. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and the Mavericks will need him to keep it up if they’re going make a playoff push in August.
I remember sitting in the press conference room at the American Airlines Center on Sept. 30, 2019. Notable players file in and out of the room on Media Day, usually reciting some generic quotes about how they can’t wait for the season to arrive, their goal of making the playoffs, so on and so forth. Then Tim Hardaway Jr. got behind the podium and said something that made my ears perk up.
“When those guys were playing with one another, Steve (Nash) and Dirk (Nowitzki), you know Mike Finley was on the team and he was a little bit older than those guys,” Hardaway Jr. said. “I feel like that will probably be my role.”
We’re not going to get into the merits of comparing Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis to Nash and Nowitzki, nor will we compare Hardaway to Finley – at least not today. But Hardaway’s statement was significant because he set quite a high bar for himself. His arrival in Dallas will forever be remembered as part of “the Kristaps Porzingis trade,” yet there he was implying he would be a top-three player on a team with playoff aspirations.
And he delivered. We can debate whether or not he’s the bona-fide third-best player on this team — Tim Cato and I did so earlier this week — because the Mavericks have a cluster of players who can fit the bill. But there’s no denying that Hardaway is in that cluster, and there’s no denying that he’s in the top three in a number of statistical categories, including total points, field goal attempts and 3-point attempts. In our series of spotlighting players leading up to the late July restart, we’re going to look at where Hardaway’s game was when the NBA hit pause on March 11th.
Season stats: 63 games: 15.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists (all per game), 43.7 FG percent, 40.7 3-point percent, 80.1 FT percent
Hardaway was one of a few Mavericks playing really well when the season came to a halt. His last game was a personal dud, but it came in the 16-point win over the Denver Nuggets. In the bigger picture of recent play, Hardaway was statistically above his season average almost across the board in the month of games before the season stopped. That run of games started right around when Doncic returned from his late January ankle injury.
Hardaway’s success this season is a tale of two situations. For the first 13 games, he came off the bench and was scoring 10.2 points per game with a True Shooting of 46.3 in 22 minutes per game. For the next 50 games, Hardaway was inserted into the starting lineup and scoring 17.3 points per game in 30 minutes. However, the starkest difference came in True Shooting, which shot up to 60.5 percent. There may be a number of explanations for the difference, but one of the primary ones is certainly the change in players around him. A player like Hardaway benefits greatly when he’s alongside Doncic running the show and Porzingis spacing the floor.
Hardaway is a scorer. His defense is fine — 0.45 DRPM, 19th among NBA shooting guards this season — and he even dishes out a couple of dimes per game, but that’s not why he’s a difference-maker. He’s a scorer, and more specifically, he’s a long-distance shooter. When breaking up distances in eight-foot increments, 57 percent (452 shots) of Hardaway’s 792 total shot attempts come from beyond 24 feet. Another 175 attempts come from within eight feet and the rest of them (163 shots) fall in between (eight to 24 feet). The rim and midrange presence is certainly, there but most of the shots come from deep. Of those 3-pointers, 339 come between the left and right wing, where he’s a 38.3 percent shooter. He’s taken 46 shots from the left corner, where he’s 41.3 percent and his most efficient area is the right corner, where he’s made 52.2 percent of his 67 attempts. Of his 346 made field goals, 236 have been assisted and 110 were unassisted. For perspective on what the other side of that looks like, of Doncic’s 512 makes, 96 are assisted and 416 are unassisted. So while Hardaway has the ability to create his own shot, ball rotation plays a big role in getting him quality looks — which to his credit, he’s done a good job of knocking down.
Catch-and-shoot
Hardaway has done a good job of figuring out certain teammate’s tendencies and navigating the floor within the system in a way that sets him up to be an available outlet if needed. Sometimes, that comes from moving all over the floor, while other times it’s simply staying put and letting the defense react to the ball-handler and trusting him to make the right decision.
Here’s a play where you see Hardaway making his way from the left corner over to the right while the action is happening on the other side. The Mavericks run a pick-and-roll from the left wing with Courtney Lee and Maxi Kleber. Once Kleber peels off the pick, Lee hits him in stride heading towards the basket. Now the Pacers defense is in a pickle, and the Mavericks are able to turn five-on-five basketball into a man advantage.
First, you see the benefit of having a player like Porzingis on the floor. The defender matched up with him is center Myles Turner, whom Porzingis is able to draw out from the paint. Doncic will always require the attention of at least one defender. Because of a well-executed pick-and-roll, the two defenders on Lee and Kleber are left out of position, and so the play ends with the Mavericks having a two-on-one. Hardaway stays put in the right corner, and his defender has to make the decision to peel off and commit to Kleber to prevent the easy basket, leaving Hardaway wide open. Kleber holds drives as deep as possible so he can separate the defender from Hardaway as much as possible before making the pass. As mentioned above, the right corner 3-pointer is Hardaway’s shot, and he knocks it down.
A lot of Hardaway’s corner looks come like that, when defenders either lose track of him or just decide to offer help defense. The example above is one from a well-orchestrated play. The one below is a benefit of sharing the floor with a great playmaker. Look at how much room he has after camping out in the left corner simply because Doncic driving from the other side attracts four defenders.
Though Hardaway misses this particular shot, these are the looks he often knocks down. It’s a good representation of why his efficiency is so drastically different as a starter with Doncic on the floor versus playing with the second unit. In fact, of all Mavericks two-man lineups this season that have played at least 40 games, Doncic and Hardaway have an offensive rating of 117.7. That barely runs second to Hardaway and Dorian Finney-Smith, who are at 117.8.
Another part of Hardaway working the floor comes in transition, which is important with Doncic because he likes to push the ball up while the defense is still trying to get back and get set. Here’s an example of Hardaway setting up again in the right corner to knock down a transition 3-pointer.
To emphasize again the chemistry with Doncic, Hardaway has been assisted by Doncic 77 times this season, more than double second-placed Delon Wright’s 32.
In this next play, Hardaway plays a solid two-man game with Porzingis. While going through his growing pains earlier in the season, Porzingis would mention how Hardaway was somebody who was easy to play off of because of their time together with the Knicks. Here you see Porzingis receive the ball at the top and, after a quick hesitation, drive towards the basket. Hardaway, standing at the free-throw line, recognizes this and replaces Porzingis behind the 3-point line, where Porzingis finds him for a wide-open look.
Off the dribble
We started with Hardaway’s catch-and-shoot abilities because that is where most of his shots come from. In fact, nearly half of his shot attempts (351/792) have come without taking a single dribble, and he’s made 44.4 percent of them. He has taken 222 shots when taking three or more dribbles, shooting 43.7 percent on such attempts, so that’s also a part of his game.
Sometimes this comes in isolation, where Hardaway simply sizes up his defender and takes the shot. This doesn’t happen too often because of the nature of the Mavericks offense running through Doncic, but Hardaway is certainly comfortable doing it.
And again from the same spot, but this time not settling for a deep 3-pointer and instead taking it in for a layup.
More commonly, Hardaway comes off of picks or is part of quality team ball rotation, where he’s able to take the defender off the dribble. Most of these, both from deep or inside, are pretty simple. Here’s an example of that in his midrange game:
A variation of his standard jump shot that has started to show up a little more recently is the running floater, which is tough but effective when there’s a quick window to get the shot up:
Hardaway deserves a lot of credit for the player he’s become this year. While playing with Doncic makes life easier thanks to the attention he attracts and the passes he makes, it also takes some adjustment to fit in the flow with a player who has the second-highest usage percentage in the NBA. Hardaway is a volume shooter, but he’s learned how to pick his spots and adapt his game so that Doncic can orchestrate the offense the way he needs to and Hardaway can still contribute at a high level. He’s the third-best scorer on the highest-rated offense in NBA history. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and the Mavericks will need him to keep it up if they’re going make a playoff push in August.
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