FanPost

Thoughts on the Tim Hardaway Move

From the beginning of the offseason, I've said that the Hawks need to focus on making smart moves to improve the team. Yeah, we'd all love them to keep their own big free agents and/ or bring in some big names from outside. But in a salary cap league with max contracts, that's ultimately out of your control. All you can do is offer players the maximum, in the case of superstars, or the most you think they're worth, in the case of everyone else, and hope they pick your team over the 10 other teams they have received similar offers for. There's only so much recruiting you can do, and if you want to keep being a competitive team, you'd better have back up plans in case no one decides to sign with you. The Hawks also can't afford to overpay too much. If they sacrifice their financial flexibility this offseason, they'd better be prepared to let Al Horford Walk at the end of next year.

What teams can control is making smart, under the radar moves to improve the team. Remember last year when the Rockets let Chandler Parsons go to open up room for Chris Bosh, who then decided to stay in Miami? Everyone thought the Rockets were screwed. But then they turned around and signed Trevor Ariza. No one thought much of the move at the time, but I thought it was a savvy move. Indeed, Ariza wound up being an upgrade over Parsons, considering the Rockets need for perimeter D at least, and one of the biggest reasons why they made the conference finals in the brutal west.

Ultimately, I think that's exactly the kind of move the Hawks made tonight. The 15th over pick is not really a good one. While there have been a few great players drafted there, for the most part, if you get a quality bench piece you feel pretty good about the pick, and the fact that the Hawks managed to turn that pick in to Tim Hardaway Jr. and two second round picks is pretty awesome. Second round picks aren't all that valuable at all in most cases. You're lucky to get a back of the rotation guy there, but the Hawks have found players like Mike Scott, Mike Muscala, and Walter Taveres in the second round, so I don't think the two picks we picked up tonight should be overlooked.

However, Tim Hardaway Jr. was the big pickup tonight. He struggled mightily last year, but did so on an awful basketball team with no real plan to get him shots. Shooting percentages tend to rise in Bud's system (see Demarre Carroll), and Hardaway seems to be a great fit in the Hawks offence. I don't expect him to start right away, but he'll be expected to be a major contributor off the Hawks bench, and could be the air apparent to the aging Kyle Korver.

This move won't break Sports Center; however it is the definition of the kind of move the Hawks need to make. The Hawks struggled and ultimately lost in the playoffs because they couldn't move the ball and didn't hit shots. Hardaway is a guy who can help them do both of those things. This is a great night for the Hawks indeed.

A FanPost expresses the opinion of the community member who wrote it and not that of the blog management.