The Dallas Mavericks are trading Tim Hardaway Jr. and three second-round draft picks to the Detroit Pistons for Quentin Grimes, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity Friday because the exchange of shooting guards can’t take effect until after the new league year begins July 6.
Trading Hardaway provides some financial flexibility in free agency for general manager Nico Harrison. The 32-year-old Hardaway is owed $16.2 million next season, while the 24-year-old Grimes is due $4.3 million for the final season of his rookie contract.
Hardaway averaged 14.4 points and 1.8 assists per game in 79 regular-season games for the Western Conference champion Mavericks this season. Hardaway had primarily been the first player off the bench for a team led by Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, but his role began to change after the midseason acquisitions of P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford.
By the end of the playoffs, Hardaway had fallen out of the Dallas rotation and his future with the team was in doubt with one season remaining on his contract.
Dallas got Hardaway from the New York Knicks in a January 2019 trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas. The Mavericks signed Hardaway to a $75 million, four-year contract before the 2021-22 season.
Over 11 NBA seasons with the Knicks, Atlanta and the Mavericks, Hardaway has averaged 14.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.
In the NBA Finals earlier this month against Boston, Hardaway scored 15 points on five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter of Game 4 that Dallas won in a blowout. He was 0-for-8 shooting in only 36 total minutes while playing in three of the other four games.
Grimes was drafted 25th overall in 2021 by the Los Angeles Clippers, who then immediately traded him to the Knicks. New York dealt him to Detroit on Feb. 8, but he played only six games after that because of right knee soreness. Grimes has averaged 8.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 168 career games, starting 90 of those.
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