The Denver Nuggets are on a relentless quest for self-improvement this week, and add another building block as Shams Charania of ESPN reports that the Nuggets have signed Tim Hardaway Jr. to a one-year deal, apparently for the veteran minimum. The 33-year-old Hardaway played with the Detroit Pistons last year and got some Sixth Man of The Year votes in multiple seasons with the Dallas Mavericks before that. He brings his career volume three-point shooting on mostly league-average efficiency to a team that often was too tentative to shoot the open deep shots that the offense generated.
Hardaway will have no such hangup, and can play with both the bench and the starting unit as he did for most of his Dallas career. And since he made 63% of his open spot-ups from deep last year, that major issue that Denver had in its playoff run last year might well now be addressed. This does create some playing time issues potentially for Julian Strawther, who was slated for the bench gunner role if Denver had not added anyone else that fit it, but that will be something for coach David Adelman to work out during the regular season. For now, another talented player joins the Nuggets this offseason to help the Nuggets in their championship chase, and that’s more than enough. As a legacy Nugget whose dad also suited up for Denver (for 14 whole games), welcome to the Mile High, Tim!
