Over the course of the first 21 games of the 2017-18 NBA regular season, few players did more to silence their critics than Tim Hardaway Jr. He made undeniable progress towards justifying the $71 million contract that the New York Knicks controversially signed him to this past summer.
Unfortunately, Hardaway has missed the past 12 games with a lower leg injury that he’s still in the process of recovering from.
After losing three of its first four games without Hardaway, the Knicks turned a corner. They went on a four-game winning streak, thus improving to 16-13 overall and effectively earning the reputation of a postseason-caliber team.