Gary Harris has dramatically improved every year in his career, so should he have a case for Most Improved Player of the Year?
Gary Harris is one of the hardest workers on the Denver Nuggets. The man has statistically improved every season in his short career.
He experienced a huge jump in scoring production from his rookie year to his second year. His points per game went from 3.4 points per game to 12.3 points per game. Plus, we all know how much of a defensive force he is on the floor.
However, he is once again improving significantly this year. His effective field goal percentage has gone from about 54% to around 57% this season and he has even increased his assists totals from 1.9 assists per game to 2.5 assists per game.
Denver Nuggets
His 3-point percentage has also increased significantly going from 35% shooting to 43% shooting from the perimeter. Harris’ advanced stats have also increased as well. His offensive box plus/minus has gone from 0.9 to 2.6. That is a very high jump in that particular category.
His defensive rebounding percentage has also slightly increased along with his true shooting percentage. His defensive numbers have suffered slightly this season, but Harris is still maintaining key production on that end of the floor.
Harris possesses a defensive rating of 114, but he is grabbing 1.5 steals 36 minutes and has a steal percentage of 2%. The cherry on top of all this is that he is being relied on a lot more this year as he has solidified himself as one Denver’s top go-to options.
Harris’ usage percentage has jumped from 16.5% to 19.4% this year. (All these stats were verified via Basketball-Reference.com). Gary came into this league mainly as a lock down defender, but he has refined his craft and worked tirelessly on his game every year of his career so far. He is now quickly becoming one of the best two-way players in the entire NBA.
With time, Denver could formulate an exciting big 3 consisting of him, Nikola Jokic, and Jamal Murray.
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He probably won’t win Most Improved Player of the Year, but he should at the very least be considered for the award.