What Shaq Harrison brings to the Nuggets

With 21 regular-season games remaining, the Nuggets are bolstering the back-end of their roster ahead of what Denver hopes is an even longer playoff run than last season’s Western Conference Finals finish.

The Nuggets are signing Shaq Harrison, a 6-foot-4 guard with elite defensive metrics, to a two-way contract. The 27-year-old appeared in 17 games with the Jazz this season and only played a total of 56 reserve minutes before he was waived in February.

To make room for Harrison Denver is waiving Greg Whittington, who only appeared in four games for the Nuggets this year. Whittington underwent a knee arthroscopy in January but was never able to get fully healthy after suffering a knee injury at training camp. The team also opened up another roster spot by waiving guard Gary Clark, who played just four minutes of garbage time for the Nuggets over their last two games after being acquired from the Orlando Magic in the Aaron Gordon trade. Clark wasn’t going to factor into Michael Malone’s rotation this season.

Harrison likely won’t be a fixture in the Nuggets’ nightly rotation either, but he’s a healthy body and Denver is high on his defense. Harrison ranked third among point guards in ESPN’s Defensive Real-Plus Minus metric in 2019-20 when he averaged 11.3 minutes over 43 games (10 starts) for the Chicago Bulls. During that season, Harrison was also rated as the No. 1 defensive point guard in the NBA and the sixth-best defender overall in FiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR metric out of players who logged at least 450 minutes.

There’s more: During the 2019-20 season, the Bulls had a 99.7 Defensive Rating in 484 minutes with Harrison on the court and a 110 Defensive Rating when he was off the court. Harrison also ranked third in the NBA in deflections per 36 minutes (4.9) that season and second in loose balls recovered (2.3).

Harrison has a long wingspan and blocks a ton of shots for a guard too. He blocked 2.2% of opposing shot attempts last season, a mark which placed Harrison in the 99th percentile among all wings, per Cleaning the Glass. Harrison’s 2.9 STL% last year also placed him in the 99th percentile in his position group.

That being said, consider Harrison a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option for Malone off his bench. He’ll be behind Jamal Murray, Will Barton, Monte Morris, Facu Campazzo and PJ Dozier in Denver’s guard rotation, but could be used situationally in the postseason based on who the Nuggets match up with. If Denver is struggling to slow down Donovan Mitchell, Devin Booker or Damian Lillard in a playoff series, Malone could try his luck with Harrison.

While his defensive tools are intriguing, Harrison’s offense is a mixed bag. He’s a career 29% shooter from three-point range but did shoot 38.1% (16-42) from three last year with the Bulls. Harrison struggled to finish at the rim throughout his career but has flashed some touch from floater range — he shot 46% in 2019-20 from 4-14 feet — and converted 44% of his mid-range attempts last season.