“Those MFFL Fans, That’s Real.” Tim Hardaway Jr., Dallas Mavericks proving perfect fit

Just how vital is Hardaway?

Further evidence supporting the theory that Hardaway is the key to the best offense in NBA history ties back to the mention of LeBron and Anthony Davis a moment ago. Yes, the duo of Dončić and Hardaway has a better NRtg than LeBron and Davis, but not by much. The Lakers superstars have an NRtg of 10.3, good enough for third in the Western Conference. Who is in second, with a 10.6 NRtg? As I’m sure you guessed, it is Tim Hardaway Jr and Dorian Finney-Smith! For real, go look.

Hardaway’s vitality to the Mavericks offense can be observed when looking at where he ranks within his own team’s lineup rankings. Behind his NRtg’s with Dončić and Finney-Smith, the Mavericks’ third-best two-player lineup with at least 750 minutes played together is Hardaway and his former sideKnick, Kristaps Porziņģis (8.9 NRtg). If you loosen the minute requirement to 500, the top two spots are still occupied by Hardaway – only with Dwight Powell (13.6 NRtg) and Jalen Brunson (12.7 NRtg).

Taking off the rose-colored glasses, Hardaway is objectively one of the Dallas Mavericks’ three most important players. The fact that he is doing so much in such a comfortable fashion with little prior indication is mesmerizing. Within the Mavericks game-to-game offense, Hardaway has a paramount influence on the success of the team.

In his 50 starts, he maintained a 60.5 total shooting percentage while knocking down 43 percent of his 3-point attempts on 7.5 attempts per game, per bb-ref. Guided by the surgical precision of Dončić, the Dallas offensive attack is predicated upon imploding the rhythm of a typical pick-and-roll set via clogging the lane and creating confusion. Once in the lane, chaos inevitably leads to a missed defensive switch, and Dončić can either go up with a shot, into his big, or out for a catch-and-shoot look on the perimeter. In that third scenario, Hardaway has become the Mavericks number one threat.

Per nba.com, Hardaway makes 43.2 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts and 44.9 percent of all ‘wide open’ 3-point attempts, with an effective field goal percentage of 63.7. Overall, 83.8 percent of Hardaway’s 3-pointers are assisted. Where do almost half of these passes come from? Dončić (28.2 percent of Hardaway’s received passes), Porziņģis (12.8 percent), and Finney-Smith (8.4 percent). On passes from Dončić, Hardaway is shooting 40.9 percent from 3. From Porziņģis? 42.6 percent. Finney-Smith? 40.0 percent. His teammates rely on him. 16.3 percent of all passes made by Dončić go to Hardaway, which is second on the team to Porziņģis.

In February, Dončić sang Hardaway’s praises high to the media after a victory over Minnesota. “He’s probably one of the best catch-and-shoot guys in the league right now, and he’s really going underrated. Not a lot of media talk about him, but there should be. He’s really underrated,” Dončić said. Hardaway isn’t just a groupie, he earns his touches and helps his teammates play significantly better, at times carrying them. “My main goal is just to contribute to helping this team win, and if we all do that, everybody shines,” Hardaway expressed to HoopsHabit.

In addition to his standing as part of the best two-player lineup for NRtg, Hardaway’s influence on high-level offense for the Mavericks remains evident in league-wide multi-player lineup stats. Lineups involving Hardaway, Dončić, and Finney-Smith have the highest ORtg (118.7) of any three-player lineup in the NBA with a minimum of 700 minutes played together. Going one step further, the highest ORtg in the NBA of any four-player lineup with 450 minutes played together is the lineup of Hardaway, Dončić, Finney-Smith, and Porziņģis (118.1).