Hard’ to believe! Tim thinking playoffs
RETURNING Knick Tim Hardaway Jr.’s intentions are pure, but this comment immediately conjures up images of former Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora’s famous playoffs rant from 2001.
“My expectation is for this team to go to the playoffs, and nothing more,” Hardaway Jr. said Sunday morning after the Knicks’ open practice at the Garden. “It starts with practice tomorrow.”
The Knicks haven’t made the playoffs in the last four seasons, traded Carmelo Anthony and are attempting to rebuild around Kristaps Porzingis. The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has the Knicks’ over/under for wins this HOWARD SIMMONS DAILY NEWS season at 30.5, fourth-worst in their Eastern Conference projections and just two above the Brooklyn Nets.
But Hardaway Jr. doesn’t seem to care what anybody else thinks, an attitude on display when he bristled at a question about some fans grousing over the four-year, $71 million contract the Knicks gave him just two years after disgraced former president Phil Jackson traded the shooting guard to Atlanta.
“I really could care less. At this point, I could care less,” Hardaway Jr. said. “People need to move on, move forward with that. That’s in the past right now. We’ve got to get ready for the season. If they’re still harping on that then their mind is somewhere else. I’m focused on the team, I’m here to win, and I know my teammates and the coaching staff, everybody in that front office has that faith and trust in me that I’m gonna go out there and do whatever I can to help the team win.”
How quickly and to what degree the 25-year-old, whom the Knicks selected No. 24 overall in the 2013 NBA draft, can help is uncertain.
After the Knicks signed him to an offer sheet that the Hawks did not match, Hardaway Jr. said in an alarming quote that the Knicks told him, “You have to obviously improve a lot more on defense and improve a lot more on the offensive end. So you can never settle.”
In his fourth NBA season last year, Hardaway Jr. posted career-highs in points per game (14.5), rebounds (2.8) assists (2.3) and minutes (27.3).