Rather than latch on with a new club, longtime sharpshooting NBA shooting guard/small forward Joe Harris is calling it a career, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
The 6-foot-6 swingman, still just 32, had been hampered by health issues in recent years, and perhaps recognized which way the wind was blowing after not getting a major run last year with the Detroit Pistons.
Harris was playing out the final season of the four-year, $72 million deal (worth up to $75 million with certain incentives) he had signed while still with the Brooklyn Nets in 2020.
But even on the worst team in the league, a Pistons club that went just 14-68 and hilariously could not even secure a top-four pick in this year’s draft, Harris rode the pine. The Virginia product averaged a scant 2.4 points on a .359/.333/.500 slash line, 0.8 rebounds, and 0.6 assists. He appeared in just 16 contests last season before being waived on the Feb. 8 tradeline when a deal for his contract did not materialize. Harris failed to latch on with a contender on the buyout market.
A two-time All-ACC honoree while with the Virginia Cavaliers, Harris was subsequently selected by the then-contending Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2014 NBA Draft, with the No. 33 overall pick.
Harris struggled to crack the rotation on a veteran-loaded Cleveland squad that went to a pair of NBA Finals during his two seasons with the squad. As a rookie alongside All-Stars LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love, Harris appeared in 51 contests, averaging 2.7 points on .400/.368/.600 shooting splits.
The still-developing wing appeared in just five games for Cleveland before he had a season-ending right foot surgery. The Cavaliers flipped him to the Orlando Magic, who cut him instantly. Without Harris, Cleveland won its first-ever NBA title. He signed as a free agent with the Brooklyn Nets that summer and finally carved out a reputation as one of the best catch-and-shoot long-range snipers in the game — for a time.
Harris finally became a major rotation piece for a 20-62, lottery-bound Nets squad, but truly emerged the next year. He connected on 41.9 percent on at least 4.5 triple tries or better throughout his next six seasons with the Nets. During his most prolific individual season, Harris averaged 14.5 points on a .485/.424/.719 slash line, 3.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 0.7 steals a night. Harris also twice nailed better than 47 percent on five or more long-range attempts over the course of a season for Brooklyn.
Having emerged as a major off-ball shooter, Harris began to establish a league-wide reputation. He won the All-Star Weekend 3-Point Contest in 2019. His acumen as a role player made him a critical piece for what soon became a loaded Nets roster, where he was joined by a trio of future Hall of Famers in All-Star power forward Kevin Durant and All-Star guards Kyrie Irving and James Harden. Though those teams never made it to even the Eastern Conference Finals, they had the pieces to truly contend.
The real health trouble that kickstarted his decline began during the 2021-22 NBA season. Mere weeks after Harris emerged as the Nets’ all-time franchise leader in made 3-pointers, Harris hurt his left ankle during a Nov. 14 120-96 blowout victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Harris had an arthroscopic injury two weeks later, but after failing to recover during the projected 4-to-8-week timeline, he had a second surgery in March 2022, intended to reconstruct his left ankle ligament.
All told, Harris had played just 14 contests with Brooklyn that season.
Harris’ numbers and minutes dipped significantly in 2022-23. He averaged his fewest points since his second season with the Cavaliers, 2015-16, with 7.6 points on a still-efficient .457/.426/.643 slash line. Harris also chipped in 2.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 0.5 steals a night. He appeared in 74 contests that season, starting just 33. He was demoted to being merely a part-time starter for the first time since 2017-18.
Across 504 career regular season games, Harris finished with 10.3 points while slashing .479/.436/.771, 3.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 0.5 swipes a night.
More News: Veteran NBA Champion Signs With Western Conference Squad on One-Year Deal
The post Veteran Sharpshooter Surprisingly Retires From NBA appeared first on Newsweek.
