The Dallas Mavericks have traded guard Tim Hardaway Jr. and three second-round picks to the Detroit Pistons for guard Quentin Grimes, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Hardaway, 32, is set to make $16.2 million next season in the final year of a four-year, $75 million contract. Grimes, 24, is set to make $4.3 million in the final season of his rookie deal.
The trade allows the Mavs to use a portion of the $12.9 million mid-level exception for non-taxpayers. Dallas had been limited to the $5.2 million mid-level taxpayer cap with Hardaway on its books.
Mavs general manager Nico Harrison described the re-signing of starting small forward Derrick Jones Jr. as the team’s “1A and 1B priority” this offseason last week. Jones, the team’s best perimeter defender, played last season on a veteran’s minimum contract.
Hardaway averaged 14.4 points last season, serving primarily as the Mavs’ sixth man. However, his role was reduced throughout the regular season and playoffs. He did not play due to a coaching decision in four of the Mavs’ last eight games in the Western Conference Finals and NBA Finals.
Hardaway spent 5 1/2 seasons in Dallas, where he arrived as part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade with the New York Knicks in January 2019. He averaged 15.2 points during his tenure with the Mavs.
Grimes averaged 8.5 points in 168 career games, including 90 starts for the Knicks. Due to right knee soreness, Grimes played only six games for the Pistons after being acquired as part of the trade deadline deal that sent Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks to New York.
