Keeping their own
Nets ink Harris to 2-year deal
Going into free agency, the Nets’ biggest priority wasn’t addition, but retention. And they managed to retain Joe Harris, one of their biggest success stories.
With the Nets, Harris developed into one of the NBA’s better 3-point shooters, and Brooklyn faced stiff competition from Indiana to hold onto the unrestricted free agent. But with Harris and the Nets both looking to come to terms, they agreed to a two-year, $16 million deal early Sunday morning.
The contract, confirmed by The Post, keeps one of the Nets’ paragons of player development in-house. Coach Kenny Atkinson’s 3point heavy system needs shooters, and Harris has been their best.
“My hope, and I know what I have kind of expressed to everyone is that I have enjoyed being here, I enjoy being in Brooklyn and I like being a part of this organization,” Harris said in April. “I think they’re about the right stuff and I don’t really envision myself being anywhere else.”
After Harris played just five games with the Cavaliers in 2015-16, he was traded to the Magic and promptly waived. The Nets inked him to a modest twoyear deal, and he had a breakout this past season, averaging 10.8 points on 41.9 percent shooting from deep.
Harris even added to his game, improving his defense and finishing as the best player in the league in scoring on drives to the rim, his 62.7 percent topping runner-up LeBron James.
The Post reported in April it was possible for Harris to quadruple his modest $1.5 million salary, and the Pacers had showed legitimate interest. Brooklyn couldn’t offer him more than $8.8 million, and locked him up for just less than that.
“I think Joe made it pretty clear from statements he made that he’d love to be back here. That’s how the organization feels about him too,” Nets general manager Sean Marks said in April. “As Kenny alluded to before, we’ve got some decisions to make on several, and definitely Joe is a guy we see in a Nets uniform.”
Mark Bartelstein, who represents both Harris and Nets unrestricted free agent Nik Stauskas, told The Post Harris staying doesn’t necessitate Stauskas leaving.
Marks has spent two years maneuvering to get the Nets to a point where they will have their own draft pick in 2019 and $50 million to $70 million in cap space that summer. Protecting that flexibility will be key, and it will take a special player to get the Nets to move off that.
It remains to be seen if Julius Randle is that player.
Randle is the biggest name in which the Nets might have interest and a reason- able chance to land, but the 23-year-old restricted free agent is stuck in limbo as the Lakers pursue LeBron James in free agency and a possible trade for Kawhi Leonard.
Most of the other Nets targets that have emerged are on the lower end of the pay scale like Latvian stretchfour Davis Bertans and Orlando’s Mario Hezonja. But one other interesting big name has cropped up: Jabari Parker. The Nets have shown interest in the Bucks’ restricted free agent, according to multiple reports.
Jeremy Lin continues to come up in trade talks, according to league sources. … Nets wing Allen Crabbe kept his alma mater, Frederick K.C. Price III Christian School in Los Angeles, from closing with a six-figure donation, according to TMZ Sports.