Is Gary Harris The Future?

Gary Harris has had a breakout second season for the Denver Nuggets and has the look of a player that can be a fixture for years to come.

Gary Harris came to the Denver Nuggets from Michigan State via a trade on draft night in 2014 that sent 11th overall pick Doug McDermott to Chicago, in return for the 16th and 19th picks in that draft. These two picks turned into Jusuf Nurkic and Harris, and both of these players look to have a role in Denver’s future.

Harris’s case is similar to a rookie who would be drafted on a championship contender. He only got minutes when there was no one else to play, which is funny because last year the Nuggets finished 30-52, which left them out of the playoffs.

Gary has taken it to another level. He’s become our best off ball mover, and he’s gotten rewarded. -Mike Malone

Chris Marlowe summed up Gary’s rookie season on a broadcast against the Timberwolves on Oct. 15 as “a compete write-off’,” we didn’t see enough of him to know whether Harris had a future here in Denver so we had to wait till this season, where new head coach Mike Malone proceeded to install him into the starting lineup for the first game of the season.

Gary’s averaging 31.6 minutes this season and he’s started all 54 games he has played in, a massive uptake from his 13 minutes per game last year in 55 games. He’s also averaging 11 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals a game, as you can see from his stat line, Gary’s value comes on the defensive end.

Malone told BSN Denver’s Nate Timmons: “Gary has taken it to another level. He’s become our best off ball mover, and he’s gotten rewarded.”

Harris’s offense will come, it’s only his second year, but he has already become a defensive stalwart that Malone relies upon to marshal the defensive end of the court. Harris has an extremely high basketball IQ, and as you can see below:

Harris reads the play immaculately, and makes a superior back-cut, finishing with a nice poster and-one. Harris scores a lot of his points this way on easy baskets, which is fantastic because the Nuggets have enough problems as it is on offense, but I’ll get into that at another time.

Harris had an early hot streak from three, shooting just better than 40 percent but has recently regressed to around a 36 percent mark this season. However, Harris has an occasional game where he may shoot very good numbers from three.

With Danilo Gallinari likely to not return this season, the scoring must be shared among others and Gary scored 17 points in the game Gallo got injured, and 15 against Memphis. So he’s already upped his input in the game and a half Gallo’s been gone.

I honestly believe Harris has what it takes to increase his scoring output over the next couple of seasons and lockdown the starting shooting guard role. His active defense and athletic ability make it easy for him to run the fastbreak by himself.

So to sum up Harris, his defense has become prolific and is easily his most valuable asset. He has an extremely high basketball IQ and creates easy buckets off his back cuts, he has a decent stroke from 3 and a vastly improved mid-range jumper. Very quick and athletic, he forces a turnover and then is capable of running the ball down the other end and finishing at the rim.

And oh, did I mention he shoots 80 percent from the free-throw line?  Another upside to Gary, this is really his first year in the league as his playing time was scarce last season. There are a lot of things to love about Gary Harris if you’re a Denver Nuggets fan, and a lot to fear if your an opposition player.

Next: Navigating the Denver Nuggets Big Men

Gary Harris has a future here in Denver, Malone has shown he is willing to deploy him as his starting shooting guard, and I truly believe Gary Harris will be our starting shooting guard for many years to come.