Nets' Harris Out Up to 2 Weeks

[Jack.Kerr]

Meet Devin Harris

By Matthew McQueeny, NJNets.com
February 20, 2008

East Rutherford, N.J. -- New Nets point guard Devin Harris has this thing about succeeding great point guards in his short career. In Dallas in 2004, the then-rookie entered the picture after Steve Nash departed for Phoenix and now in New Jersey, he follows Jason Kidd.

While it may seem a rather daunting task to do just once – forget twice, as he has done – Harris has improved in every year of his career and was always on winning Maverick teams.

“I just try to be myself,” said the soon-to-be-25 year old.

“I don’t worry about the guys, trying to fill those shoes. I’m a different person, I’m a different player. I just play as hard as I can and try to get the players to accept me for the person I am, and the player that I am.”

That player was good enough to be the starting point guard in 61 games for last year’s Dallas squad, one that notched a league-best 67 wins. After primarily being a reserve in his first two seasons – though he started 15 of 23 games in Dallas’ march to the 2006 NBA Finals – Harris had been the main man at the point over the last season and a half.

And the operative word to describe the University of Wisconsin product, no matter who you talk to, is “speed.” It was even the word he first used to describe what he will bring to the Nets.

“He’s a young point guard, 24 years old,” said Kiki Vandeweghe, Nets Special Assistant to the President.

“He’s been a starter on a 60-plus win team. He’s been to the Finals, so he has experience. Very, very fast; he’s a very good defender and I think he’s got upside. I think he’s going to get better, and he’s a great kid. I think he’s a leader. It’s obviously a very difficult trade to make but I think that he’s going to continue to get better for a long time and he’s going to be with us for quite a while.”

Devin said he looks forward to the opportunity in New Jersey and is not taking the trade as a negative or a knock against his abilities.

“It’s not like I was traded for guys who are role players,” affirmed Harris.

“I mean, Jason (Kidd) is a Hall-of-Famer and it’s just going to be hard to fill those shoes that he left. But I’m just trying to be my own person and I’m looking forward to the freedom I’m going to get here to do what I look to do, like score and do the things that I’m capable of doing.”

“I’ve worked hard the last four years, just trying to get better every year in the system I was in. It was a controlled system but hopefully with the freedom now, I can expand on that and really do the things that I can do well.”

Through 39 games this season Harris was averaging career-highs in points (14.4), steals (1.4), and assists (5.3). He believes - at the outset - that the change from a more controlled Dallas system to New Jersey’s should see at least the assists go up.

“With the stuff that we ran in Dallas, we were more of an isolation team. So we pretty much got the guys into the spots where they were going to be successful and then you pretty much wait on a double-team to get on the other side. It’s hard to get 10 or 11 assists, especially if guys have an off night jump shot wise, but with the offense I looked at (here) yesterday there’s more of a chance for me to have more assists.”

“He’s a great push point guard in terms of transition,” said Nets Head Coach Lawrence Frank.

“He can get up and down the court in four seconds. We want to maximize that. He’s a good pick-and-roll player but the thing is so is Jason Kidd. It’s not like we’re bringing in a guy and he’s replacing a guy who didn’t play the position. They're different types of players but I think both can thrive in similar formats.”

That is what the Nets hope for. They also expect to stay in the playoff hunt and make it to the post-season for a seventh consecutive year. That goal is certainly shared by Harris.

“I’m looking forward to honing in with these guys and really try to lead them and get them where we want to go.”

“We definitely want to make the playoffs,” he asserted. “Teams are a little bit more evenly matched here – in the West, you pretty much have your top four teams who are expected to go late into the playoffs – but here - after Boston, Detroit, and Orlando - everyone else is evenly matched. So hopefully we can just make some noise in the playoffs and get on a roll.”

Harris May Not Play for “Another Week or Two”

Devin Harris has been out this season since January 27th with a left ankle sprain. Don’t expect him to get into his first action with the Nets tonight and it maybe actually be a little more time before he suits up with his new team.

“Still not ready to play,” he said. “Obviously doing some stuff on the court but it looks like it’s going to be another week or two.”

“We’ll call it an ankle sprain – grade 2.”