Tim Hardaway Jr. benefits Dallas Mavericks off the bench

The Dallas Mavericks finally broke away from their losing woes Wednesday, after they defeated the New Orléans Pelicans. Before the win, Dallas had loss seven of their last eight games. Their worst game came Monday night, where they got blown out by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

With the team struggling to get back on track, Jason Kidd and company may have found a short-term solution:

The Dallas Mavericks decided to bench Tim Hardaway Jr.

Now we all know Luka Doncic needs all the shooting help he can get, but having a veteran guard off the bench might not be a bad idea.

Let’s first look at his numbers off the bench last season. During the 2020-2021 campaign he averaged 16.6 points per game and shot 44 percent. This all while being a six man in more than 50 percent of the Mav’s games.

If you take a deeper look, in just 70 games he came off the bench in 39 of those contests. In those 39 games he averaged 15 points and hit 44 percent of his shots. Compare those numbers to 31 games as a starter and not much changed.

As a starter during the 2020-2021 campaign he scored 18 points per contest and shot 45 percent.

So all that differed was three points. If you want to dive even deeper, his three numbers were off just by one percent.

On the bright side though, Dallas had a winning record whenever Hardaway Jr. came off the bench last season.

What about this season for the Dallas Mavericks?

Fast forward to this season and maybe, just maybe, that same trend can continue.

This season, the Mavs guard has only came off the bench once, and that was on Wednesday against the Pelicans. Against New Orleans, Hardaway Jr. hit six of his nine shots and finished the game off with 16 points. Another key contribution was his ability to hit four of his seven threes.

That one game made a huge difference in contrast to any other games he started this season. In 19 games as a starter this season, he averaged 14points and shot 38 percent, while hitting 33 percent of his threes.

Analyze those numbers to his one bench game this season, and then was plenty of improvement. In Wednesday’s game he shot 66 percent and hit 57 percent of his threes. Those all are a season high, in contrast to most games this season. The only other game he shot well against NOLA back on November 11th. There he hit 80 percent of his threes and shot percent.

So while it may be too early to tell, having Timmy off the bench may not be a bad thing after all. While the numbers may be stagnant, the team’s record speaks otherwise.

Plus, Tim has shown flashes of improvement when off the bench.

Why not give it a shot again this season.

• Published on 12/03/2021 at 12:54 PM
• Last updated at 12/03/2021 at 12:54 PM