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Damn. More arsenal to his game.
Mavs' Harris working on jump shot
Mavericks point guard knows he needs to improve in that area to retain his starting spot
[By David Moore / The Dallas Morning News]
Devin Harris peels off his jersey and steps into the whirlpool after an early morning workout.
His frame is more muscular than it was a few months earlier. A tattoo stretches the width of his shoulder blades, an addition coach Avery Johnson mentioned when the two had lunch recently.
Some changes are obvious. But it will take several months for us to learn if Harris has added what he needs most.
A consistent jump shot.
There's no need to dance around the subject. Harris doesn't. Ask what he concentrated on this off-season and a slight smile creases his face.
"Let's see," he says. "Jump shots, jump shots, jump shots."
On this morning Harris worked out with teammates Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse, Erick Dampier, DeSagana Diop and Anthony Johnson. He finished the session with 300 or so jump shots. He will repeat that routine later in the afternoon.
Harris estimates he has averaged 600 to 700 jump shots every day for the past month. He doesn't launch these from indiscriminate parts of the court. The point guard only works on shots he's likely to see in the flow of the Mavericks offense.
The ball leaves Harris' hand differently than it did when he was the Big Ten Player of the Year at Wisconsin. The rotation is off. That is why Harris will work with Gary Close, the man he calls his shooting coach, before camp starts in two weeks.
Close is an assistant with the Badgers. Before that he was an assistant in Iowa where he worked with B.J. Armstrong, who went on to sink a few jump shots while starting next to Michael Jordan for the Chicago Bulls.
The Mavericks would not have gotten past San Antonio in the second round if it weren't for Harris. His speed changed the complexion of the Spurs series, but his impact waned over the final two rounds.
Miami backed off Harris and dared him to shoot, something he did at a 36.4 percent clip in The Finals. When he did drive to the basket, he was greeted by Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning or sealed on the baseline with no way to finish the play.
"I had pretty much a great run at San Antonio, but the last two series I could have played better," Harris says. "The way Miami was playing me, it was almost like they were playing five-on-four. They weren't respecting my outside touch.
"In the regular season, you may get away with it. But the further we went in the playoffs ... It frustrated me."
Johnson didn't have to tell Harris to work on his jump shot this off-season. Harris doesn't want to be known as a one-trick point guard, someone with blazing speed who can't hit an uncontested jumper to save his team's life.
If Harris can't make opponents respect his jump shot, he will find it harder and harder to drive to the basket.
If Harris doesn't develop a jump shot his coach can trust, the starting job the third-year player craves won't materialize.
"Am I going to come in and say something stupid like, we have five positions that are open?" Avery Johnson asked. "That's just coach's talk and sound bites, but no. Dirk [Nowitzki] is starting no matter what kind of camp he has. Josh Howard is starting. Jason Terry is starting. Now, we'll talk after that."
Harris, Anthony Johnson and Greg Buckner will be given the chance to start next to Terry. Since Avery Johnson is committed to moving Terry off the ball even more this season, the compe ion will come down to Harris and Anthony Johnson.
Harris has the speed. Anthony Johnson has the experience. He's a true point guard and the sort of self-made player Avery Johnson admires. The coach won't hesitate to turn to the former Indiana guard if Harris isn't up to the challenge.
"It's wide open," Harris said of the starting job. "But it's something I'm going to try to claim."
His push for the starting job officially begins in less than two weeks with the start of camp.
That's time for Harris to take at least 7,800 more jump shots.
Damn. More arsenal to his game.
Every good player with a ty shot has this story written about him every summer. Only the names of the players and shooting doctors change.
i like devin. dude's gonna be solid. spotlight of the mavs for me. potential all-star material. glad to hear he is growing.
an NBA player working on his jumpshot!??!?!
omg, he's allstar material!
Props to a young player who actually cares about his jumpshot.
Why the sarcasm? Devin Harris is a great young prospect, I don't know why you wouldn't like his chances of becoming an all-star.an NBA player working on his jumpshot!??!?!
omg, he's allstar material!
read what you said then you will understand
Harris isn't a "great" prospect and I doubt that he will be one day an all star given that there are something like 10 young PGs who are better than him or who are better prospects.
You can roll your eyes as much as you want and said that my opinion is stupid but truth is that Harris isn't that great. As I said before he isn't even a top10 project/young PG.
Umm if Parker is a top 10 pt guard now then Devin can be as well. Devin is super quick and if he adds some weight along with developing a jumper he can be a Kevin Johnson like point gaurd. Stop being a homer for once genius.
Don't worry guys there's enough hate to go around. All mav players will be bashed at some point or another, at least on this board.
If ....
Stop being a homer for once genius.
A mavs fan saying that I'm an homer because I don't overrate a mavs player.
Go read the definition of homer in the dictionary, genius.
name 10 young prospects that r better than harris then
i can think of 2 ....paul and hinrich
I'm not bashing him, I've just said that he isn't a great prospect. The fact that he is a mavs player has nothing to do with what I say, I don't hate mavs player.
Umm...Bruno I hope you know that Devin Harris and Tony Parker are very similar, the main difference being Parker has more experience as a starter and go to guy. They are both super quick point guards who like to penetrate and struggle with the outside shot. So explain to me again how Tony Parker is so great and Devin Harris doesn't even have a chance of becoming an all-star?
Telfair
Ford
Hinrich
Felton
Nelson
Arenas
Paul
Parker
Williams
Livingston
Having similar way to play doesn't mean that you have the same level.
Look at what parker has done, look at what harris has done and don't forget that Parker is only 9 month older.
i dont kno about u but i wouldnt say parker and arenus r prospects...no way in would i ever take telfair over harris...ford maybe...felton no...nelson yes...livingston its a toss up...and i dont kno which williams ur talking about here
I haven't said 10 best prospects but 10 best young players/prospect. i've said that because harris won't be an allstar if 10 players around his age who plays PG are better than him. And Williams is Deron Williams.
Devin Harris came into my work a couple a months ago.
Lmao he puts Sebastian Telfair over Devin!!!!! I give up.
Telfair is a team killer just like his cousin Stephon Marbury, except he doesn't even put up the flashy numbers.
Last edited by mavs>spurs2; 09-20-2006 at 05:29 PM.
Harris is a fantastic talent, but it'll take a while for the KJ comparison to take any root. KJ shot 49% for his career and in his prime (before his half-dozen knee surgeries), was a consistant 20+ point, 10+ assist PG who routinely took it to the best PG's in the game's history (Magic, Stockton, Payton)...
With a 50% jumper, Harris will challenge for an All-Star appearance, but KJ was the #1 player on a Western Conference Finals team (22.5 ppg, 11.4 apg, 50% FG) that averaged roughly 114.9 points per game. I doubt Harris will ever be that on a team that does that.
The skills may be similer, but the players will never be the same.
I do really think highly of Harris' potential, but I've learned that some players just never max said potential because while all the physical tools and skills are there, the brain never allows it all to work to its fullest. Harris, like Leandro Barbosa, may be that type.
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