In a move for Dallas that is mostly about freeing up cap space to make an offer to Derrick Jones Jr., the Mavericks have agreed to trade veteran sharpshooter Tim Hardaway Jr. to Detroit.
The full trade will send Hardaway Jr. and three second-round picks to Detroit for Quentin Grimes, it’s a story broken by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Dallas sends a 2025 second via Toronto and two 2028 seconds in the deal, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/JuUa0lEI7O
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 28, 2024
For Dallas, this is all about retaining Jones Jr., the thing team decision-maker Nico Harrison said was priority 1A and 1B this offseason. Dallas saves almost $12 million in this trade, which frees up enough cap space for Harrison to use most of the $12.9 million mid-level exception to lure Jones back as a free agent.
It’s not much of a loss on the court for the Mavericks, if at all. While Hardaway can still shoot the rock (14.4 points a game last season, 35.3% from 3), when games mattered in the playoffs he was out of Jason Kidd’s core rotation and only got serious run the last couple of games of the Finals as Kidd was throwing anything against the wall to see what might stick (and Hardaway had 15 points in Game 4). Grimes — who missed a chunk of last season due to injuries — can fill those minutes.
Detroit has done what a rebuilding team should do with cap space — take on a bad contract to get draft picks back. That Raptors pick is likely higher in the second round (possibly going to be 31-40), which will have real value as a pick or as trade bait for other teams. The Dallas picks could have value that far out as well.
Detroit still has around $50 million in cap space it can spend.
In addition, the Pistons put a veteran shooter in Hardaway around Cade Cunningham, who could use some guys around him who will knock down shots.