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Analyst all in on potential of $17 million wing coming off Boston Celtics bench

By Andrew Hughes

Dallas Basketball's Isaac Bourne is all on the potential of the Boston Celtics bench including a $17 million wing currently on the Dallas Mavericks Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Dallas Basketball's Isaac Bourne is all on the potential of the Boston Celtics bench including a $17 million wing currently on the Dallas Mavericks Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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Dallas Basketball’s Isaac Bourne thinks the prospect of Tim Hardaway Jr. coming off the Boston Celtics bench — this after a hypothetical deal from NBA Analysis Network that would see the Cs send Malcolm Brogdon in return for the 2013 New York Knicks first-round draft pick — would be a positive for Boston. Bourne also believes that Derrick White would be a beneficiary of such a proposal.

“As for the Celtics, Hardaway would be a valued scorer in their second unit,” Bourne prefaced before saying, “He’d be able to slide in at the backup two spot for a team that only has one true shooting guard on its roster in Jaylen Brown. Also, with the emergence of Derrick White, moving Brogdon allows the Celtics to give him more minutes.

“With a $22 million base salary compared to Hardaway’s $17 million in 2023-24, the Celtics would net $5 million in this deal, which is always valuable to a team that just inked Brown to the biggest contract in NBA history.”

Tim Hardaway Jr. is too inefficient to be valuable on the Boston Celtics second unit

Hardaway fits well on the Mavericks, who have Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving and not much else in the way of shot-creators. On the Boston Celtics, he’d be an unnecessary volume scorer on a team that already has Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, and Derrick White creating opportunities for themselves. Having a fifth score-first gunner is an unnecessary luxury; a luxury that may lose that label if the franchise ultimately suffers from landing him.

Hardaway will have a place in the NBA for many more years to come, but he probably doesn’t have one in Boston.

Given that he has two years left on his deal, the Celtics would be better off trying to flip Brogdon, which may be inevitable given his near-trade to the Los Angeles Clippers and the resulting stressed relationship between the player and the Cs franchise, for a player on an expiring deal so Brad Stevens can maintain flexibility moving forward with a rising cap-sheet and imminent punitive tax penalties to taxpaying teams.

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