The Brooklyn Nets have been without guard Joe Harris since mid November due to an ankle injury, depriving them of a key floor spacer for a large chunk of the season. Now, it seems possible that Harris will miss even more time.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Harris may need a second surgery on his injured left ankle. Whether or not Harris will get the surgery, Harris’ agent Mark Bartelstein told ESPN, will be decided upon how Harris progresses over the next ‘one or two weeks.’ It is possible, per ESPN, that Harris could return to action without having to have another operation.
Originally, Harris was expected to miss 4-8 weeks with the injury, but has missed much more time than that due to setbacks in his rehab. He was originally injured on Nov. 14 and subsequently had surgery on Nov. 29 to deal with what was deemed “a little bone particle.”
Harris is a needed piece for Brooklyn. One of the league’s best floor spacers, he’s a key piece to provide room for Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving to work. (That trio has had limited time together this season for various reasons, only compounding the problems Brooklyn is facing.) When he’s not available, they don’t really have a way to replace the three-point shooting he provides. Perhaps if they can get their three stars on the floor all at once the Nets can still figure it out and make a real title run. But that assumes Harris will come back at all, which doesn’t seem like a guarantee if he has to have another surgery.
Prior to his injury, Harris was averaging 11.3 points per game while shooting 45.2% from the field and 46.6% from three.