The Brooklyn Nets need Joe Harris. There’s a lot that’s happened since Nov. 14, the last game that he played in. Kyrie Irving returned to the team, Kevin Durant sprained his MCL, and James Harden’s been the center of trade rumors.
Harris has been off to the side rehabbing his left ankle. He underwent surgery on Nov. 29 and was given a return timeline of 4-8 weeks. That was almost 10 weeks ago.
It began with Harris having setbacks with his rehab, which turned into him receiving a second opinion from doctors in Indianapolis, and now there’s a chance that he’ll have to undergo a second surgery.
When healthy, Brooklyn has the most talented roster in the NBA. However, the Nets can’t seem to shake the bad luck that’s been following them since the start of the season.
Brooklyn Nets shooter Joe Harris may undergo a second ankle surgery.
Please, no.
Let’s hope that Harris’ agent Mark Bartelstein is doing his best to ward off other teams from making trade offers from the 30-year-old.
Harris has been with the Nets since 2016-17. He’s the only player left on the roster who was part of Brooklyn’s playoff run in 2018-19.
He signed a four-year, $75 million contract with the Nets ahead of the 2020-21 season. Harris averaged 11.3 points and shot 45.2% from the field and 46.6% from the 3-point line in the 14 games that he played in.
It was less than two weeks ago that Steve Nash said that Harris was increasing his on-court activity. He hasn’t been cleared for high-intensity work but it felt like maybe, just maybe, Harris was going to make it over that hump.
Now Brooklyn’s faced with the reality that there’s an actual chance that Harris won’t suit up again this year. That’d be brutal for the Nets who sit towards the bottom of the league with an average of 11.1 made 3-pointers per game.
Bartelstein spoke with the New York Post and said:
“We’re just constantly kind of evaluating it. He’s trying to work back and working really hard at it, and we’re just trying to figure it out,” Bartelstein told The Post. “It’s just it’s either his ankle is going to respond and he’ll be able to play right now, or there might be one little more procedure we need to do just to get it completely right. And we’re just trying to figure that out.”
Harris seems to believe that he’ll be back this season though.
We appreciate his mindset but until Harris knows for sure that he won’t need to undergo a second procedure, it’ll be hard to find solace in his confidence.
Until then, fans will have to channel all of their positive energy in Harris’ direction. He deserves to bounce back from his playoff performance against the Bucks last year. More than anything, Harris deserves to have a shot at winning a title with the team that he helped build.
