Tim Hardaway Jr. had the NBA’s lowest turnover percentage (4.7%) in 2025-26

MIAMI — Oct. 15, 2026 — Tim Hardaway Jr. took 779 shots, made 224 threes and scored 1,079 points for the Denver Nuggets in 2025-26. He turned the ball over 43 times. That ratio put him first on Basketball-Reference’s 2025-26 turnover-percentage leaderboard with a 4.7 percent mark, the lowest of any qualified player in the league.

Turnover percentage estimates how many turnovers a player commits per 100 of his own plays — shots, free-throw trips and giveaways combined. A 4.7 means Hardaway coughed it up on fewer than five of every 100 possessions he finished, while playing 80 games and 2,127 minutes for the league’s No. 1 offense.

A full point clear of the field

Nobody else on the qualified board got under 5.4. Boston’s Sam Hauser was second at 5.4, New Orleans’ Saddiq Bey third at 5.8 and the Lakers’ Rui Hachimura fourth at 6.3. Among the 77 players who logged at least 2,000 minutes, the gap was even wider: Bey’s 5.8 was the next-best figure behind Hardaway.

• Turnover percentage, 2025-26 (qualified): Hardaway 4.7, Hauser 5.4, Bey 5.8, Hachimura 6.3, Duncan Robinson 6.7, Devin Vassell 6.9
• Hardaway turnovers: 43 in 80 games (0.5 per game, about 0.73 per 36 minutes)
• Points per turnover: 1,079 points to 43 turnovers, roughly 25 to 1
• Usage rate: 18.5 percent — real volume, not a player hiding in the corner

The usage number matters. Plenty of low-turnover seasons come from players who rarely touch the ball. Hardaway used 18.5 percent of Denver’s possessions while he was on the floor, more than Hauser (14.5) or Hachimura (15.2), and still protected the ball better than anyone on the list.

The cleanest season of a 13-year career

The 4.7 is a personal best by a wide margin. Basketball-Reference’s career table for Hardaway shows a 7.1 percent turnover rate across 13 seasons, with earlier lows of 5.6 in 2021-22 and 5.9 as a Knicks rookie in 2013-14. His final two Dallas seasons came in at 6.1 and 6.2, and his one Pistons year (2024-25) at 6.1.

He paired the ball security with the most efficient shooting of his career. Hardaway hit .447 from the field, .407 from three on 550 attempts and .811 at the line for a .624 true-shooting percentage, comfortably above his previous best of .589 in 2020-21. He averaged 13.5 points in 26.6 minutes and started only six games.

• 2025-26 line: 80 games, 6 starts, 26.6 minutes, 13.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.5 turnovers
• Shooting: 348 of 779 (.447), 224 of 550 from three (.407), 159 of 196 free throws (.811)
• Advanced: 4.7 TOV%, 18.5 USG%, .624 TS%, 4.4 win shares (3.5 offensive)
• Sixth Man of the Year: third with 45 points, behind Keldon Johnson and Jaime Jaquez Jr.

NBA.com noted that he led all reserves with 205 3-pointers made off the bench. Denver, which finished 54-28, posted a 122.6 offensive rating on Basketball-Reference, the best in the league, and a team turnover percentage of 11.5, third-lowest behind Boston and Oklahoma City at 11.2.

What Denver says it has to replace

Hardaway signed a one-year deal with the Miami Heat in July and will wear his father’s No. 10. Nuggets coach David Adelman brought him up unprompted before Denver’s preseason game against the Clippers on Wednesday, joking that Hardaway was a “bad shot maker and taker” — meaning it as the compliment it sounded like — and crediting him for Denver’s 3-point numbers.

The Denver Nuggets were the NBA's top offense last season

Asked head coach David Adelman how he plans on approaching areas of improvement there, even as the entire starting lineup returns

He mentioned missing Tim Hardaway Jr.: "You can tell Tim I said this, he's a bad shot… pic.twitter.com/aWB0wDLbqd

— Law Murray 💀 (@LawMurrayTheNU) October 15, 2026

In Miami, Hardaway joins a team that also took care of the ball last season: the Heat’s 11.6 team turnover percentage ranked fourth. He has already scored 14 points twice this preseason, against Toronto in Québec City and against Brooklyn on Wednesday night.

Why it matters for 2026-27

Floor-spacing wings who rarely waste a possession are a specific kind of valuable. Hardaway’s 2025-26 season is the cleanest version of that profile anyone produced last year: high-volume threes, a career-best true-shooting mark and fewer than five giveaways per 100 plays. Whether a 34-year-old can repeat it in a new system is the open question for Miami’s bench.