Joe Harris remains one of the preeminent shooters in the NBA. He’s enhanced his reputation this season with consistent performances.
Advertisement
The 29-year-old has now become one of the NBA’s most valuable 3-and-D players. Harris’ marksmanship was never in question even as a rookie with Cleveland. But it required years of development and gaining basketball experience IQ for Joe to become a plus defender.
Simply put, there has been no specialist 3-point shooter as ever-present and reliable as Joe Harris this year. His stats speak for themselves. Harris is second in the league in 3-point percentage, making a whopping 47.9% of his 6.5 3-point attempts per year.
This figure will make him the most accurate shooter in NBA history attempting over 6 threes a game if he sustains it. James Harden’s playmaking has definitely helped the Nets bring the best out of their own ironman.
Steve Nash and Landry Shamet wax eloquent about Joe Harris
A player who knows his limitations and his roles and plays within it is a boon to any coach. Nash had the same thing to say about Harris’s performances this year.
“He’s been over-reliable. He never wants to sit. We have to protect him from himself sometimes because he wants to take on the challenge every single night. When I even bring up rest he’s not into it at all. On the flip side, it’s been amazing to have a guy like that.”
One of Harris’s signature moments of this season was a scoring outburst against Charlotte. Harris’s late buckets helped the Nets increase their separation late in the game and seal a win. Shamet said:
“He didn’t have any conscience. He was just shooting. That’s the best Joe. He’s just out there getting looks up. We joke about how many ‘jacks’ we’re going to get in a game. That’s our word for it.”
“And when he’s hunting them and getting them up like that, it’s always fun to see. It bodes real well for our offense, it makes everybody else’s life easier when he’s even just getting them up.”
