Following the Denver Nuggets’ 125-115 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Nov. 24, guard Tim Hardaway Jr. spoke about his position as a part of the team’s bench unit and its importance during games.

“Just do our best to give the starters some spark,” Hardaway Jr. said during a postgame interview. “Take a lot of the load and a lot of the other things that make it tough for them. Take a lot of that off them, off their shoulders to make it a lot easier for them to come back in the game, have a comfortable lead or a chance to extend the lead. So, just trying to do our job, knock down our shots when open, get stops, just try to keep the intensity going.” 

Hardaway Jr., a 13-year veteran, has played different roles at each of his stops across his NBA career. He has spent time with the New York Knicks, the Atlanta Hawks, the Dallas Mavericks, the Detroit Pistons, and now the Nuggets, and has been everything from a starter to a role player to now a bench unit igniter. 

This season, Hardaway Jr. is averaging 11.1 points per game, pacing all of Denver’s players who come off the bench. He’s had some particularly strong games this season – two of which came against the Minnesota Timberwolves when he scored 20 points in the two teams’ first meeting on Oct. 27 and 23 points more recently in their second meeting on Nov. 15. 

The guard advanced as far as the NBA Finals when he was with the Mavericks in 2024, but this season with the Nuggets may bring his next best shot at winning a championship and finally hoisting the coveted Larry O’Brien trophy.

Throughout the Nuggets’ 13-4 start, Hardaway Jr. has proven to be a reliable option for Denver and he will continue to be called upon this season, especially across this next month stretch with Aaron Gordon expected to be out of action for 4 to 6 weeks with a right hamstring injury. 

Against Memphis last night, the Nuggets proved they can win without Gordon, and now Denver has three days off after the team endured quite the topsy-turvy schedule over the last week. 

In the span of six days, the Nuggets went from Denver to New Orleans to Houston, then back to Denver, and then to Memphis to cap off this stretch of games, where the team was frequently moving in and out of time zones. 

“It’s crazy, but I’m glad that we got through it,” Hardaway Jr. said. “Glad that we were able to get a majority of these wins. So I mean it just shows the grit and the fire with this team.” 

The Nuggets’ next game is against the San Antonio Spurs at 9:30 p.m. EST on Nov. 28.