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To a certain degree, Joe Harris has been the forgotten man among all the guards and wings on the Nets roster. He missed the last quarter of the season with a concussion and a shoulder injury. And of course, since the end of last season, the Nets traded for D’Angelo Russell, DeMarre Carroll, and Allen Crabbe.
So what now?
Harris was the Nets top three-point shooter last season and as Carroll says, the Nets will need all the three-point shooting they can find. To open up space for Russell, Jeremy Lin, and Sean Kilpatrick, there has to be a threat beyond the arc.
“For them to create, guys like myself and Allen Crabbe and Joe Harris have to be able to shoot the three-ball at a high rate to open the floor up,” said Carroll who shot 38 percent from deep his last year in Atlanta.
Russell says Harris was the big surprise in the pre-camp scrimmaging at HSS Training Center.
“I can’t really remember the last time that I had 3-point shooters as a threat, specific guys that have that stamp of shooters,” Russell said. “Joe Harris is the guy that surprised me the most that can really stick it.”
Harris keeps saying he wants to shoot at a higher rate than the 38.5 percent he hit last season.
“That’s just a personal goal of mine,” Harris told beat writers during training camp at the Naval Academy. “I hovered around 38 and 39 percent last year. If you look at all the top shooters in the NBA, guys that might be specialists — like how I see myself as a good shooter and specialist — they’re always 40 percent and above. So that’s a personal goal for me to get into that elite 3-point shooting percentage.”
As Brian Lewis notes, it took a percentage of 40.5 to get into the top 20 last season. The Nets already have the second best three-point shooter in the league in Crabbe, but he’s hurt. So expect to see more of Harris on Tuesday when the Nets open their preseason at the Garden vs. the Knicks.
“Whoever’s getting minutes, we’ve been competing against each other, so everybody’s going to be sharp,” Harris said. “People are going to be real locked in and focused. You’re going to see an increase in guys’ productivity just because it’s the whole ‘iron sharpening iron’ thing.”
- One Net setting sights on being a top NBA 3-point shooter - Brian Lewis - New York Post
- Nets’ Joe Harris takes aim at NBA elite three-point shooting status - Greg Logan - Newsday