Look for Harris to have a bounce back year defensively

Gary Harris didn’t have his best defensive season, but don’t expect to see a repeat of that next year.

It is no secret that Gary Harris is the Denver Nugget’s best perimeter defender. As a matter of fact, I will go as far to say that he is just the best overall defender on the Nugget’s roster.

Gary had a great year this season improving dramatically on the offensive end of the court and becoming one of Denver’s most reliable options. Unfortunately, due to some injuries and not being able to start at the beginning of the year because of said injuries, his defense suffered quite a bit. Harris had probably the worst defensive year of his young career.

More from Nugg Love

• Was trading Bones Hyland a mistake for the Denver Nuggets?
• Did Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets break Anthony Davis?
• Denver Nuggets stars face serious disrespect in recent NBA rankings poll
• What will it take for Denver Nuggets star to become ‘inevitable?’
• Denver Nuggets NBA Training Camp report, other preseason dates to know

When one looks at his defensive statistics from the two previous years, he is bound to regain his form at that end of the court. Per basketball-reference.com, Harris had a defensive rating of 114 on the year. In the the other two seasons, his rating was much better at 111 and 109 his rookie season. His defensive win share also decreased from 1.2 to 0.7.

This year, Harris logged 1,782 minutes compared to the year before where he played 2,439 minutes. The year where he played the most minutes, he had probably his best defensive season so far. This goes to show that with more playing time, Harris will be able to bounce back defensively next season.

Let us not forget that Denver was terrible as a team defensively as well which may have also correlated with some of Gary’s defensive dips in certain statistical categories. With all of this in mind, expect Gary Harris to have a bounce back year defensively come next season.