Joe Harris
RETIRED

Player Facts

Height: 6'6"
Weight: 220lbs.

Wingspan: 6'6"

Date of Birth: Sept. 6, 1991
College Experience: Virginia (4 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 7
Physical Strength: 6
Positional Size: 8
Positional Wingspan: 6
Paint Scoring: 7
Midrange Scoring: 8
Three-Point Scoring: 10
Dribbling: 6
Passing: 5
Perimeter Defense: 6
Interior Defense: 4
Rebounding: 5

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Lights-Out Shooting

> Jetting by the Closeout

> Moving Without the Basketball

> Leveraging the Handoff + Passing

> Defensive Points of Strength

> Rebounding Help

> Some Defensive Struggles

> Offensive Limitations

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of Smart Highlights, NF & Z. Highlights (YouTube)

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

The 6'6" sniper Joe Harris is a joy to watch as a three-point power source. Buzzing around the floor, Joe works hard to earn his looks from deep. He can put the ball on the deck too, passing and finishing well enough to balance out his offensive toolkit.

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Lights-Out Shooting

His status as a genuine three-point marksman is unshakeable. He shot a combined 46.4% (294/634) on catch-and-shoots spanning 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Joe still managed to swish 38.4% of his tightly contested threes (defender 2-4 feet away) over that pair of seasons.

Harris was in the top ten in total catch-and-shoot points compiled in both 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. 2020-2021 actually represented his best shooting season to date. He led the league in total three-point percentage but that doesn't even tell the full story.

Remarkably, he put up a sparkling 1.19 points per possession on spot-ups in 2019-2020 playing next to penetrators like Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Caris LeVert. This allowed Joe to grace the 85th percentile in the Association.

He needs to be located immediately in transition or else he's letting it rip. Commonly, Joe will dash to the wing awaiting a hit-ahead pass. Here and generally speaking, Harris has great shot preparation skills with the foundation being his knees-bent stance. Transition triples are just one of the many ways the 2018-2019 3PT% leader rains in his three-balls.

From when he began to get meaningful minutes in 2016-2017, to 2019-2020, Harris has scored more than 51% of his points on threes in each season. If not a triple, Joe is most likely shooting from right at the basket, where he was at 63.5% in 2020-2021. He especially enjoys the driving reverse layup against closeouts, a shot type that saw a 50% clip that same year.

The former Cavalier (both at the University of Virginia and in Cleveland) cans most of his threes from above-the-break in the NBA. On these, he knocked down 40.2% in 2019-2020 with Brooklyn. In examining some of his other shot zones, his 57.3% mark from 0-8 feet of the iron bested like-sized shooters Bogdan Bogdanovic and Luke Kennard.

Jetting by the Closeout

He's upped his drives per game to over 3 in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. This is far more key a statistic for a player like Joe than it is for the majority of players.

Having the confidence and ball skills to attack decisively on a consistent basis as a shooter is of utmost importance. It keeps defenses honest and vaults you into becoming a far more dynamic offensive piece.

Moving Without the Basketball

Joe's overall off-ball movement is sublime. He sees his opportunities to cut behind his man and finish strong at the cup. He'll even mix it up and set nice off-ball screens to ease his teammates' movement around the court.

The 6'6" sharpshooter is disciplined as a route-runner, roving around in the half-court to shed his counterpart. In fact, Harris' 94.9 total offensive miles ran in 2019-2020 beat out the active Buddy Hield and Duncan Robinson.

One way Joe makes use of his good size is by using a jump stop in the lane. Harris can come to a halt after bursting through a driving lane, stabilizing himself in the process. Then, Harris can power upwards firmly and off two feet for a controlled finish. He's not shy when it comes to initiating contact and finishing through it.

Leveraging the Handoff + Passing

He does well in working the two-man game with his big man. Joe exhibits exemplary footwork and urgency in receiving dribble handoffs. He'll gauge his status and promptly rise up for three or even from inside the arc if unbothered. Only eight players had more points via handoffs in 2019-2020.

Joe Harris makes the correct pass more often than not. His assists tend to come from one of two places. One: driving in from the perimeter and laying it off to the five-man. Two: swinging it along the perimeter, giving up a good shot for a great one.

Defensive Points of Strength

Joe's approximately around average on defense. He's decent enough defending a given player who's around the same size as him, landing in the 50th percentile defending in isolation in 2019-2020.

The troubles begin and end with his defense against more spry, explosive player types. Thankfully, he's usually surrounded by some higher-quality defenders who are better suited to do the job.

Harris is usually in the right place as an off-ball defender. Being so adept and deeply knowledgeable with his own off-ball motion helps him mirror opposing shooters better. Joe can sniff out subtle tricks that they may try to use on him, as he uses these deceptions himself.

He also denies well, making to very pass to his man more challenging. Joe is a determined fast break defender as well. The blocks he does record tend to be in these spots following a hard hustle back.

Rebounding Help

He competes on the glass against bigger guys. Joe gave you 5.1 rebounds per 36 minutes in 2019-2020. Examining his box-outs unearths some further value in this area. As a Net, his 113 box-outs in 2019-2020 edged out frontcourt players such as Jaren Jackson Jr., Jonathan Isaac, Danilo Gallinari, and Jayson Tatum.

WEAKNESSES

Some Defensive Struggles

Joe's point of attack work is not always great on the defensive end. The main culprit here is a lack of elite lateral quickness or agility. Advanced statistics present an even more troublesome case for Harris, being in the 35th percentile defending pick-and-roll initiators in 2018-2019 and the 5th in 2019-2020.

He's also a ways away from having the 'defensive playmaker' label despite hefty chunks of time as an off-ball perimeter defender. Harris has a criminally low steal and block rate, nor does he chip in with deflections or charges. Moreover, while not completely telling, shooters shot 2.4% above their average on threes with Harris as their defender in 2019-2020.

Offensive Limitations

While comfortable and valuable within his role as a shooter, it would be nice if he could capably initiate some pick-and-rolls on occasion. Here and there, Joe could mix it up with these sets. After all, he is a swingman in the NBA, and its rarer to not be able to carry out a pick-and-roll than it is to be able to.

Free throw shooting is an area of expertise for Harris. Like most pure shooters, those glorious mechanics translate to the stripe. The weakness for Joe here is the scarcity of his free throw attempts. He has never gotten there even twice a game on average for any of his campaigns.

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bacon
Beacon Bacon

Joe was the only player in his draft class to have a wingspan measured shorter than his height