New York Knicks: What the statistics say about Tim Hardaway Jr.
By Eric Snyder
His offense
The offensive rating metric measures the impact a player has on his teams offense as a whole. It doesn’t merely measure how many points a player scores; it measures how many points the team scores while the player is on the floor. Current leaders in offensive rating this season include Ed Davis, Evan Turner and Spencer Dinwiddie, so it’s clearly still early in the season.
No doubt, the shooting guard position is an extremely important role in a team’s offense. Where does Tim Hardaway Jr. rank among starting guards in the NBA for offensive rating?
Luckily, he doesn’t rank dead last this time. But he does rank 75th out of 81 possible guards with his teammate Ramon Sessions coming in last (Courtney Lee ranked 78th). Sadly, the New York Knicks have three guards ranked in the bottom of offensive rating in the entire league.
Three Knicks guards with an awful offensive rating says more about Jeff Hornacek than it does anyone. In this rebuilding process, most thought the Knicks’ defense would suffer as the team scored in his fast-paced offense. However, the team is one of the worst in the NBA in all areas and Tim Hardaway Jr isn’t helping.
Similar to offensive rating, a player’s assist-to-turnover ratio speaks volumes about his offensive ability. Hardaway also ranks 75th in this category, further painting a masterpiece of NBA failure. $71 million or not, the Knicks need much more out of Hardaway than they’re getting.
It’s clear he is killing the New York Knicks on offense in both scoring and overall playmaking. But is Hardaway at least playing defense at a high level? The last statistic answers that question in the most mediocre way possible.