Luka Doncic lost.
First, it was a game in which the Mavericks fell behind by 11 points to the Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, thanks to their seventh turnover, an errant pass midway through the third quarter. The ball rolled into the courtside seats. Then he lost his cool.
“Why didn't he run to the line?” Doncic shouted to the coaches sitting on the Dallas bench. In this case, his anger was directed at one of his longest-tenured teammates, Tim Hardaway Jr.
Doncic's frustration must have been running high throughout the game. Dallas just came off a disappointing road trip with a 1-3 record, and Sunday's game was an opportunity to make that right. But despite starting the game with 11 points unanswered, Dallas quickly faltered. In the end, they lost the game 120-116, but it wasn't as close as the final score indicated.
A lackluster loss was already in sight by the third quarter, as the Mavericks finished halftime with less urgency than before. Doncic committed six improbable turnovers leading up to this game, taking responsibility for himself. The seventh, an errant pass to Hardaway, is even more troubling.
There are two ways to look at this. Doncic, who is always better than anyone, anticipates the floor and passes to where he thinks Hardaway should be, or Hardaway sees Philadelphia's Kyle Lowry wedged between two shooters. Either he intentionally stopped a few feet. He positioned himself behind the 3-point line to create a good angle for either his own shot or a swing pass to teammate Derrick Jones Jr. in the corner. Hardaway may have thought a retreating Buddy Hield would close that passing window. Doncic also could have simply used a slow look to direct the pass to Jones instead of throwing it into space.
But for Doncic, it must have been emblematic of the past few weeks. There was another moment of synchronicity gone awry and, as so often these days, Hardaway being held accountable.
Hardaway joined Dallas in the 2019 trade for Kristaps Porzisis. He was considered a salary dump by the New York Knicks, but has now outlasted the star player who was supposed to be Doncic's running mate. In 2021, Dallas re-signed Hardaway to a four-year, $75 million contract. Throughout Doncic's tenure, Hardaway bounced between the starting lineup and the bench, but two different coaches trusted him to fill a role best described as the team's third scorer. Dorian Finney-Smith is the only player who played more minutes alongside Doncic than Hardaway.
It wasn't supposed to happen. It is well known that the Mavericks' front office attempted to trade Hardaway the past two seasons, both at the deadline and during the offseason, but received little interest from other teams in the league. . Hardaway remembers that he is not wanted. “To be honest, I didn't know if I was going to be here,” he said before this season started, referring to trade rumors that have been going on for years.
However, his continued presence on the roster has allowed him to become a solid part of the team's rotation as a high-volume 3-point shooter, often paired with Doncic. Hardaway has consistently averaged about 29 minutes per game over his six seasons with Dallas.
During that time, Hardaway has never been in a worse situation than he is now.
Over the last nine games, Hardaway is averaging 8.7 points, shooting 34 percent from the field and 28 percent from the field. During his time in Dallas, he had 16 stretches of similar length in which he shot less than 30 percent from three. However, in terms of points (87) and game score (4.0), which is basic box score analysis, this is by far the worst record. Provided by Basketball Reference. This is the third-worst stretch he's had in terms of box plus-minus, a slightly more rigorous statistic that tracks how teams have played on the court while he's been around.
“A lot of times we only see X's and O's, but there could be something going on off the court as well,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said after Monday's practice. “They're human beings. We've all been in slumps in the game of basketball. We've all been in slumps in life. To win championships, we have to (Hardaway) I trust you and I need you.”
Through online discussions, Hardaway has become a harsh fall man in evaluating the team's recent performance. (Kidd continues to play with Hardaway, with other players who appear to be weak spots in the rotation following close behind.) It's easy to argue that Hardaway cost the team wins. Particularly blamed for his 1-of-8 shooting performance against Philadelphia and his poor defense against Max Strus last week. He lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Perhaps, as Kidd hinted, there's more going on than meets the eye.
The fact remains that Doncic was furious in front of the media line on Sunday, publicly expressing his dissatisfaction with the team's third-longest-tenured player.
What's interesting is that Hardaway has long had a symbiotic relationship with Doncic on the court. In three of the past four seasons, the offense was much better with Hardaway than without him. The only exception was the team's 2021-22 season, which ended in a conference finals appearance as Spencer Dinwiddie essentially filled Hardaway's third-point role with a similarly spacey defenseman. Hardaway missed the postseason after undergoing midseason foot surgery, and the 31-year-old's game has slowed down a bit since then.
Still, even last season, Hardaway stood out next to Doncic. When Doncic played without Hardaway, the team averaged just 114.1 points per 100 possessions, nearly four points worse than when both were out. That difference was equivalent to the difference between the 6th and 24th ranked offenses in the league.
Hardaway's on-off numbers have plummeted this year, and his recent growth hasn't helped. Since the trade deadline, when the Mavericks traded future draft capital for P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford, Dallas is 22nd in the league in catch-and-shoot 3-point percentage. Hardaway is a poor defensive player who can be careless off the ball, but he may be the player the team needs to step up if it is to reach championship contender status. He's also someone the Mavericks desperately needed when he was almost constantly making shots in a Dallas uniform.
Coach Kidd decided that Hardaway would be a bench player this year, and he replaced him at the eight-minute mark of the first and third quarters. His playing time has been reduced recently in line with his worst slump in history, so any script that would have him heading to the scorer's box as soon as the clock struck 8 has disappeared. However, Kidd has yet to replace Hardaway with second-year guard Jaden Hardy, who has a similar skill set. Exploring a replacement for Hardaway makes sense from a macro perspective, but it may not be as easy of a return option as it seems.
This dilemma with Hardaway isn't always portrayed accurately. The truth is more complicated. Despite his flaws, he is a useful player with the necessary archetypes that are irreplaceable. Especially during Doncic's tenure, he has become a defensive burden that is difficult to plan for when the team is built around two guards with poor defensive ability. He hasn't been as bad in recent games. But his form has been so poor of late that there's no denying that any team that claims he has serious play-off ambitions will have to consider all options.
However, in Hardaway's case, the seemingly simple solution may not be as simple as it seems.
(Photo: Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
