After a stellar 2018-19 season, Brooklyn Nets wing Joe Harris decided to take his spectacular shooting abroad. How did he fare at the FIBA World Cup?
Brooklyn Nets shooting guard Joe Harris was arguably the best 3-point shooter in the world last season, leading the NBA at 47.4 percent from long range.
He got the opportunity this summer to continue to grow his game and reputation with the United States men’s national team, which has been competing in the FIBA World Cup in China.
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(Credit to NBA.com and FIBA.basketball for statistics and USA Basketball for GIFS)
With many American players deciding not to participate, there was concern the US might be vulnerable. This proved true, as the team fell in back-to-back games to France and Serbia and will now play for seventh place on Saturday.
Although a disappointing end for the team as a whole, Harris has performed well throughout the tournament, seemingly taking advantage of the experience.
In seven games, the sharpshooter has averaged 7.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 20.9 minutes per game and is shooting 52.4 percent from long range (11-for-21).
The 52.4 percent ranks fourth in the tournament among players that have made 10 or more 3s (behind Czech Republic’s Blake Schilb, Germany’s Johannes Voigtmann and New Zealand’s Corey Webster).
It shouldn’t be overly surprising that Harris has excelled at the shorter FIBA 3-point line, but his consistency has been impressive nonetheless. He’s made at least one 3-pointer in every contest and shot at least 50 percent from long range in all but two games.
Having a shooter of Harris’s caliber would seemingly be a coup for team USA, but he has been arguably underutilized by the team. He’s only averaged 5.1 field goal attempts and 3.0 long range attempts versus the 9.8 and 5.1 respectively he had with the Nets this past season.
Harris went 2-for-3 from the field and 1-of-2 from 3-point range in the U.S.’s quarterfinal loss to France. Perhaps things would have been different if he got a few more looks.
For the tournament as a whole, the US is tied for only 15th in 3-point percentage among the 32 teams (33.0 percent). Considering the shorter 3-point line, this has been quite a disappointing result.
Of the 12 players on the roster, only one other than Harris has shot better than 35.0 percent from long range: Kemba Walker (38.5 percent).
It certainly looks like Joe Harris hasn’t lost his jump shot in the offseason, and perhaps he’ll come back a better player in some way. Players have talked in the past about the value of FIBA and Olympics experiences and Harris could be another example.