Mills: We had $71M reasons to like Tim

Knicks president Steve Mills addressed the media Monday for the first time since signing Tim Hardaway to a shocking four-year, $71 million contract. He attempted to shed some light on his thought process, considering the Hawks — Hardaway’s former team — were reportedly thinking of offering the shooting guard around $45 million.

The Knicks drafted Hardaway in 2013 before Phil Jackson traded him to Atlanta two years later. Hardaway was a restricted free agent this offseason, meaning the Hawks had the ability to match any offer.

“We decided prior to July 1 that Tim was one of the players that we were targeting,” Mills said at GM Scott Perry’s introductory news conference. “We were familiar with who Tim is as a person and who he is as a player from his time with us. We watched him, in our opinion, grow over his time in the player development program that they had in Atlanta. So we decided he was a target.

“As we look at the numbers, we believe Tim is a starting two guard in this league, our trajectory for him is to be a starting two guard . ... And those guys average 16, 16.5 million dollars in the NBA today. So that’s how we came to the decision to go after him and how we came to the decision to be aggressive in making sure that he became a Knick.”

Hardaway’s contract averages nearly $18 million annually.

Perry, who the Knicks hired away from the Kings, said he and his colleagues “applauded” the Hardaway signing in Sacramento.

“I’m happy that I’m joining a team that Tim’s going to be a part of,” Perry said. “I think at 25 years old he’s entering his prime as a basketball player. So that’s the right time you want to have him come aboard.” spoken two or three times over the summer.”

Porzingis skipped his exit meeting with Jackson at the end of last season to demonstrate his frustration with the Knicks’ dysfunction. Jackson then listened to trade offers for the 7-3 Latvian as a sort of petty retribution for the lack of respect.