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Tim Hardaway Jr.: ‘The goal for me is to return as a Dallas Maverick’

The Mavericks guard also said Dallas has a chip on its shoulder after its first-round exit in the playoffs.

Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. recently joined the K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM] to talk about free agency, Dallas’ motivation to improve on this past season and more.

Here are the highlights of that conversation, edited for clarity:

Are you planning on opting into your contract?

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Tim Hardaway Jr.: "The goal for me is to return as a Dallas Maverick. That’s the goal. Everybody knows how much I love Dallas, how much I want to be apart of the organization, how much I’ve built those relationships with those guys and people around the Dallas community.

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“So yes that is the plan and hopefully the plan goes accordingly. Just have to talk with my agent and let him figure all that out and we will have that answer when the time comes, but you guys know where my heart is at.”

On the NBA bubble experience:

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Hardaway Jr.: "One thing I could take away from that bubble is the guys, we all hang out with one another off the court, all of us. That bubble, it really didn’t affect us that much just because we all hang so much off the court whether it’s going to dinner, whether we’re on the road and we all say ‘hey let’s go to the movies.’ I think we went out to eat every road trip and even after games at home, we’d go and eat.

“It was easier for us. If you were to ask which team had the most fun off the court in the bubble, I think our team would be brought up a lot. It was fun, it was great, a lot of storytelling, a lot of talking and a lot of just building that off the court chemistry.”

How much will the Mavericks concentrate on becoming a better defensive team?

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Hardaway Jr.: "I’m pretty sure that’ll be the number one priority moving forward. We know that we can get there with our offensive abilities, but defensively that’s where games are won. We know we were missing some pieces: [Kristaps Porzingis] and Dwight Powell, those guys are anchors behind us on defense. They help us guards and everybody be a little more aggressive while we’re there because we know they can protect the rim.

“Maxi Kleber, [Willie Cauley-Stein], the list goes on. We knew we had a lot of guys that we were shorthanded with, especially bigs so I know moving forward we’ll have a lot of those guys back, hopefully everybody back and that end will take care of itself.”

Does the team need additional pieces?

Hardaway Jr.: “I’m confident with the guys that we have. The team that we had assembled this season, we started out tremendous for the age of people we have on our team and how everybody was just starting to come together going into [the All-Star break]. The loss of Dwight Powell really hurt us in that sense but in this game, in this league it’s always next man up and the guys that filled in for him, they did a tremendous job in what they were able to do and their abilities. I’m happy with the guys that we’ve had but that’s not my say, that’s the front office’s say and I’ll just leave it at that.”

On making sure the Mavericks don’t get complacent:

Hardaway Jr.: “I think after the season was over, I’m pretty sure everybody had a big chip on their shoulder. Being able to play against the Clippers was a blessing, to be honest with you. It really showed where we needed to go to be a team, where we can advance. Everybody saw how physical and how demanding of a series that was, just to try to grind out and get a win.

"Everybody has a chip on their shoulder now and they’re ready to go to make sure we get back to where we were. Not only get there but to move on and go to the next round, and the round after that and hopefully compete for a championship.”

Listen to the full interview.

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