Gary Harris shares a unique distinction with Spartans like Jaren Jackson Jr., Miles Bridges, and Deyonta Davis as a small class of players who were destined to leave school early to go pro. Izzo is known as someone who prefers to recruit guys who will stay until they are upper-classmen, but with Harris, he was just too talented not to recruit.
A starter from day one, he was the first Spartan to win Big Ten Freshman of the Year since 1986. Averaging 12.9 points on 41% three-point shooting after his first year, he probably could have gone pro but decided to stick with the program one more season. He upped his production in year two, averaging just a hair under 17 points-per-game on his way to being drafted #19 in that year’s NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, before being traded that same night to the Denver Nuggets.
Harris is already widely respected around the league as being a tenacious defender and a great shooter. He has averaged 12.4 points-per-game over his career with the Nuggets and shot a blazing 42% from three in the 2016-17 season.
His one achilles heel, thus far, has been his health. Harris has not yet played a full NBA season, and he only played in 57 games this year. He notched his lowest amount of games played this year since his rookie season but looks to be healthy heading into a tough playoff matchup against the Spurs.
Harris will likely be tasked to cover break-out player and former teammate Bryn Forbes this weekend, and you can catch their first game this Saturday at 10:30pm ET on ESPN.
