Gary Harris had a very good season for the Nuggets last year, showing he may be one of the best young shooting guards in the NBA with his ability to score the basketball and shoot the three-point shot efficiently.
The Nuggets are re-paying him (that is an understatement) to the tune of a new four-year, $84 million extension.
Denver Nuggets guard Gary Harris has reached agreement on a four-year, $84 million contract extension, league sources told ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 8, 2017
Harris is only 23 and essentially averaged 15-3-3 on 50% shooting from the field and 42% shooting from three-point range last season.
That sort of offensive efficiency is a rarity in the NBA, as evidenced by this tweet…
Gary Harris was one of only 5 players made > 100 3PT's and shot > 50% from the floor last season.
(Other 4: LeBron, KAT, Otto Porter & KD)
— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) October 8, 2017
While that stat is telling and Harrus appears to be poised to become a top or second tier shooting guard in the NBA, $21 million per season is still an overpay in my opinion for a negative defender at this point who brings little to the table besides his shooting ability and scoring prowess.
With Harris’s contract, Paul Millsap’s signing and impending extensions for Nikola Jokic and Will Barton, the Nuggets could easily be in the luxury tax next season.
The Gary Harris extension now has Denver with $113M in guaranteed salary next year. The Nuggets could be a tax team in 2018-19.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) October 8, 2017
Harris is a good young player and he would have likely commanded this money in the restricted free agency market next off-season, so this is still a solid move for the Nuggets to lock up a member of their core going forward, but I am still not convinced that Harris is the kind of player who will ever have the value that a $21 million per season player should have.
The Nuggets are hoping he can help them return to the playoffs this season.
