Joe Harris discusses his new teammates; Nets ‘owning’ one borough at a time

Appearing on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast, Joe Harris discussed his new teammates, the process of getting them here and how they and he will fit into the offense.

We’ll start with “the new guys.” Harris’ was asked about role in recruitment.

“Oh, Joe Harris was all about the recruitment,” he said sarcastically. “No, I didn’t take any part in the recruitment. I let the other guys kind of the bulk of that stuff. I do know Kyrie [and] you do talk through the course of the year.”

Harris played with Irving in Cleveland during the 2014-2015 season and called him “misunderstood” earlier this summer when asked about Irving. The PMT guys asked whether Harris knew about Kevin Durant and Irving joining the Nets before everybody else. Harris admitted – like everybody else with the Nets – that he didn’t know about KD. Irving on the other hand…

“The stuff with KD was pretty last minute, but Kyrie we all kind of had an idea he was gonna come to Brooklyn.”

Indeed. Sean Marks claims he didn’t know Durant was headed to Brooklyn until he posted the news on his Boardroom Instagram account. Kenny Atkinson recently said he didn’t believe it at first. Now, it’s a reality and Atkinson is going to have to adjust with his new players. Harris, a posterboy for Atkinson’s offense, doesn’t think it will be a problem.

“To be honest, Kenny [Atkinson] the way he coaches – he’s very good based off the personnel he has. He’s transparent too, he’s gonna have a lot of communication with guys like Kyrie, the new guys, what they’re comfortable playing with in terms of offensive philosophy. But he does a really good job of letting guys playing freely, like there isn’t a whole lot of schematics, it’s more based off feel and react and that’s what our offense has been in the past.

“I don’t see that changing a ton unless these guys have a problem with it.”

So, what got these guys to Brooklyn?

“You look at the foundation of the organization: we have a lot of good, young pieces,” said Harris. “Caris [LeVert] is up and coming, maybe All-Star at some point, Spencer [Dinwiddie], Jarrett Allen. You can go up and down the list, there’s a lot of quality players that attracted those players to come and want to play with.”

Harris was also asked whether he was invited to LeBron James’ “La Familia” dinners with (most) of the Cavaliers’ team during his year and a half in Cleveland.

“I didn’t make it to La Familia… Then Delly [Matthew Dellevadova] and I formed our own La Familia, and it sucks.”

We don’t think Joe Harris, the NBA’s top three-point shooter, will have a hard time getting into team dinners in Brooklyn with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Things are different now for Joe Harris, as he and the PMT hosts discuss throughout the podcast. He mentions his breakthrough and how it took him more time to adjust to the NBA.

However, the most important thing was getting an opportunity in Brooklyn.

“It’s one of those things where the adjustment takes a little longer than others. For me, I was kind of thrown into the fire right away. I didn’t really have an opportunity to learn through some of the mistakes.

“I get drafted by Cleveland, a young team, pre-LeBron, brand new coach with a developing team and then overnight, it changes to a championship contender when LeBron comes back. So, it’s basically me in this situation where if I’m not helping them play at a championship level, I’m not gonna play. The opposite was in Brooklyn. I got a chance, I got an opportunity but I was able to learn through my mistakes. We were a young developing team and they wanted guys to take their wounds right away and develop in that direction.

“I was lucky with Brooklyn, they were in this kind of weird situation where they didn’t have any draft picks. So, they had to figure out ways to stockpile young talent and at that time I was only 23-years-old. I hadn’t really solidified anything in the NBA, but I did have a specific niche in terms of shooting. Kenny Atkinson had come from Atlanta, one of the plug-in guys that he thought would be good with the good teams in Atlanta, and my comparison was [Kyle] Korver. He kind of saw a little bit of me in Kyle and played that card. That was my break.”

Harris shot an NBA-best 47.4 percent from three this past season and became Brooklyn’s Kyle Korver (ending the copier curse?)

Most recently, Harris was named to Team USA’s select team, in essence their practice squad,

An integral part of Brooklyn’s rebuild, growth and now big moment, Harris refuses to get ahead of himself.

The PMT guys asked if the Nets own New York. Harris wouldn’t quite go there.

“I wouldn’t go that far (laughs). No headlines to start [the show]. [But] we definitely own Brooklyn.”