Earlier this weekend, the New York Knicks made the decision to offer veteran guard Tim Hardaway Jr. a four-year, $71 million offer sheet that the Atlanta Hawks did not decide to match.
According to Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Knicks' move to sign Hardaway Jr. to a lucrative deal has shocked many within the organization.
Mills made the decision to sign Atlanta Hawks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. to a four-year, $71 million contract, a move that has been met with shock inside and outside the organization. The Knicks have become a perennial lottery team, rife with organizational discord and dysfunction.
The 25-year-old is coming off a breakout year where he averaged 14.5 points on 45.5 percent shooting from the field along with 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 27.5 minutes per contest while making 30 starts in 79 games played.
Hardaway Jr. experienced an uptick in production after Kyle Korver was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he averaged 18.0 points on 38 percent shooting from beyond the arc in the last six weeks of the season.
Despite this increased production from Hardaway Jr., there wasn't an expectation that he would receive that type of deal. What makes it more surprising is that he spent his first two years in the league with the Knicks before being traded to the Hawks during the 2015 NBA Draft.
That said, this could be a prime opportunity for Hardaway Jr. to build on his breakout year to become a prominent piece of the puzzle for the Knicks.
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