Nuggets lose sharp-shooting sixth man to star-loaded team

Tim Hardaway Jr. is going home.

In an expected move, the veteran sharpshooter is heading back to the area where he grew up, agreeing to a one-year, $6.5 million deal with the Miami Heat to team up with Giannis Antetokounmpo, multiple reports claimed. The news dropped in the first hour of free agency, reported by multiple outlets.

For Denver, it’s a quiet exit for a player who gave the Nuggets one of the best individual shooting seasons in franchise history.

Hardaway averaged 13.5 points in 80 games, mostly off the bench, where he buried 205 triples at a 41 percent clip. His total of 224 makes ranks second in Nuggets history for a single season, behind only Jamal Murray, who set the franchise mark a year ago.

The 34-year-old was a finalist for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, ultimately finishing third behind San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson and Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. It was huge for Hardaway, who has had some up and down years in recent times but he made the most of his one year minimum deal in Denver to revitalize his career.

The writing was on the wall. Holding only non-Bird rights, the Nuggets could only offer Hardaway no more than 120 percent of the veteran minimum without significant roster changes — roughly $4.7 million. Miami beat that without much trouble.

Even Hardaway’s own father lobbied for a reunion this offseason, telling FanDuel TV the Nuggets should “run it back” with his son in the rotation.

Instead, Hardaway runs it back to South Florida, joining a franchise where his father was twice an All-Star and where the Heat roster is suddenly stacked with Giannis and Bam Adebayo, and in need of shooters just like THJ.

The Nuggets, possibly ducking the second apron and staring at a roster that needs a shakeup, will move on without their best bench scorer — and without many options to replace him. Your turn Julian Strawther.

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