Nuggets Continue Brilliant Free Agent Run with Veteran Guard Signing

Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Nuggets are inking free agent former Detroit Pistons reserve shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. to a one-year contract. His agent at Priority Sports, Mark Bartelstein, worked out final details of the agreement, Charania reports.

Terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, meaning it could be a high-value veteran's minimum deal. Given Hardaway's pedigree and his solid performance for the Pistons just last season while wrapping up a four-year, $75 million contract, it seemed likely he could have fetched a bi-annual exception or perhaps even a taxpayer mid-level exception from another team.

In 77 healthy contests for the 44-38 Pistons (all starts), the 6-foot-5 wing averaged 11.0 points on a .406/.368/.855 slash line, 2.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 0.5 steals a game.

Now 33, Hardaway is a career 36.1% shooter from distance, on 6.3 triple tries a night. In his New York Knicks-era prime, he was a solid defender, and while he remains competent on that end, he is being brought in to shoot off the ball as a release valve for Denver MVP center Nikola Jokic and point guard Jamal Murray, the team's two primary creators.

This has proven to be an exciting start to the tenures of newly promoted executive vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer and freshly-hired executive vice president of player personnel Jon Wallace, formerly a Minnesota Timberwolves executive.

The duo is replacing Calvin Booth, with whom Denver won it all in 2023 (albeit through a roster mostly constructed by then-recently departed Timberwolves president Tim Connelly). 

Booth, who had whiffed badly in the 2024 offseason by letting starting two-guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope depart for nothing in free agency and using roster spots and free agent cash on Saric and Russell Westbrook, was fired late into the 2024-25 regular season by owner Josh Kroenke.