Why Michael Malone's support for Gary Harris has never wavered

When Michael Malone took the Nuggets’ head coaching job in 2015, one of his first executive orders was to name Gary Harris his starting shooting guard. Harris was coming off a dreadful rookie season where the former 19th overall pick couldn’t carve out consistent playing time on a 30-win Nuggets team, but Michael Malone immediately presented Harris with something that former head coach Brian Shaw never did: opportunity.

Malone observed Harris throughout the Nuggets’ open gyms the summer after his rookie year. He watched Harris shoot jumper after jumper on Denver’s practice court and commit himself to the offseason weightlifting program that the Nuggets’ training staff had outlined for the Michigan State product. Malone then started Harris in all 76 games he appeared in the following year. He’s been Denver’s starting shooting guard ever since.

“Coach, he’s the first one to give me a chance to play,” Harris said. “He stuck with me. So it’s all love and respect between me and coach.”

Harris was instrumental in the Nuggets’ 109-82 victory over the Heat Wednesday, Denver’s fifth-straight win. He finished with only seven points but handed out a team-high seven assists. With Miami down Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Goran Dragic, the Heat’s path to victory involved getting sharpshooter Duncan Robinson hot from beyond the three-point line. Harris held Robinson to just eight points on 2-10 shooting from distance. Harris also logged 35 minutes and finished a team-high +31 in the win.

“He’s a tough cover. He never stops moving,” Malone said of Robinson. “And Gary was in him the whole night and made him work for everything.”

“I thought Gary was phenomenal tonight.”

Harris tracked Robinson all over the floor Wednesday. Check out Harris’ effort to bypass a Bam Adebayo screen and still find way to contest this Robinson three.

Harris closed down Robinson’s airspace quickly on this attempt too.

This was a great effort by Harris to get around another Adebayo screen and still get a hand in Robinson’s peripheral.

Harris’ defensive effort Wednesday was emblematic of how the Nuggets successfully overcame a rocky start to the regular season and have since evolved into one of the NBA’s hottest teams over the last few weeks. Since a Jan. 1 loss to the Suns, which dropped Denver to 1-4, the Nuggets have won 10 of their last 13 and now sit fourth in the West.

Denver’s January surge has been on the back of its defense. The Nuggets were the second-worst defense in the league after their first four games of the season. But since Jan. 3, Denver has the NBA’s fifth-best defense to go with the fourth-best offense and third-best point differential. Over their last 13 games, the Nuggets also rank first in rebounding.

The Nuggets held the undermanned Heat to 37.5% shooting from the field and 28.9% from three. Denver out-rebounded Miami 49-38.

“Honestly, I just feel like we’re helping each other out,” Harris said regarding the Nuggets’ stingy defense. “We’re flying around. It’s not perfect, but we’re giving that effort, that second effort, that third effort. And we’re gang rebounding.”

It’s fitting that Harris had the showing he did on a night when Denver had one of its better ball movement games of the season. Throughout Wednesday’s first half, the Nuggets tallied 58 points and handed out 16 assists on 24 baskets. At least over the first and second quarters, Denver fully played to one of its founding tenants of selfless basketball.

Four years ago, Harris burst onto the scene during the 2016-17 season when the Nuggets’ offense was in its most equal-opportunity state. Nikola Jokic wasn’t Denver’s starting center to open that season and Jamal Murray was entering his rookie year. The Nuggets were a bunch of nobodies in search of an identity. They found one around Jokic and Harris, who was the first Nuggets perimeter player to build a chemistry with Denver’s franchise cornerstone. The Nuggets won 40 games that season and narrowly missed the playoffs.

Harris’ breakout season came the following year when he averaged 17.5 points and shot 39.6% from three. Harris’ seven assists Wednesday against the Heat were his most since December 2017, right around the time when Harris was building the foundation of what would be a career year.

Perhaps Harris is inching back towards the offensive consistency that made him one of the league’s most exciting two guards during a two-year run from 2016-18. Harris shot 0-2 from three against the Heat, but over his last 12 games is shooting 44.2% from distance. It’s an encouraging trend.

Then again, Harris has had hot shooting stretches over the last couple of seasons followed by ice-cold weeks that have turned into months. Harris shot 33.9% from three in 2018-19, 33.3% in 2019-20, and even for his hot shooting at times, this season is currently converting just 32.8% of his attempts from beyond the arc.

“I’m the same person I’ve always been,” Harris said postgame when asked about his shot.

But Harris is clearly playing with more confidence on the offensive end of the floor now than he did over his last two injury-filled regular seasons. He’s shooting 69% at the rim this year, a respectable mark that slots him in the 73rd percentile among all NBA wings and is up significantly from the 59% he shot from that distance last season.

Malone will stick with Harris regardless. A lot of it’s due to Harris’ ball-stopping defense and no-nonsense approach on that end of the floor, both of which have been staples of his game even throughout poor offensive seasons. Denver’s coaching staff lauds Harris for his willingness to guard the opponent’s best perimeter player on a night-to-night basis. He’ll never complain or ask to be moved off a matchup.

Malone’s willingness to stay with Harris goes back many, many seasons. Denver’s coach gave Harris the keys to his starting shooting guard job way back when Harris was an unproven second-year player. In return, the then-wiry two-guard gave Malone everything he wanted from that position.

The Nuggets have won a lot of games and multiple playoff series since, and Malone has signed multiple contract extensions to stay in Denver while Harris has remained the starter. The Nuggets went to the Western Conference Finals last season with Harris starting at shooting guard and he was extremely impactful on both ends of the floor throughout a second-round seven-game series vs. the Clippers. That trust is still there and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“Gary Harris is a guy that so many people have been down on,” Malone said. “But I’ve been with Gary Harris for six years now. Gary Harris has a lot to do with me still being the head coach here.”

“I believe in Gary Harris.”