September 3, 2009

Harris Holds Court

Jet-lagged though he might have been after returning Tuesday night from a second summer sojourn to the Far East, Devin Harris made a priority of showing up at the Nets Practice Facility in time for the weekend. After working with Jarvis Hayes to organize everybody for a week of pickup games, Harris knew it was important to follow through and appear.

It's the kind of thing leaders do, and Harris has that responsibility sitting squarely upon those lithe shoulders. Fitting, then, that he spent much of the offseason working with Tim Grover's Attack Athletics to build upper body strength, gaining 10-12 pounds in the process. With Vince Carter's visage now plastered upon Orlando-area billboards, Harris is expected to claim ownership of the team.

"I’m excited about it," said Harris, who met with the media on Thursday after working out. "It’s something that’s been talked about all summer. There’s things I’m thinking about doing differently. We don’t have that familiar face around here anymore -- Vince is gone -- so it falls right on my shoulders, but I’ve got a lot of veterans around to help me with that."

Harris cited Keyon Dooling, Eduardo Najera and newcomers Rafer Alston and Tony Battie as veterans he's confident will speak up and help ease the burden. He wonders how the team will respond to adversity, but knows it's on him and the vets to pull the group together instead of allowing them to falter.

That same coalition has everyone on the team thinking defensively, important for a team that struggled to stop teams from scoring a season ago (bottom-third in the league by most measures). With the team's youthful energy bubbling and potential perimeter stoppers in Courtney Lee and Terrence Williams -- not to mention Harris, who was once known for helping to put the 'D' in Dallas -- backed by a capable set of shot blockers led by Brook Lopez, Harris envisions a team that is more than capable of making the playoffs.

And make no mistake, it's team success Harris is after, now that he's achieved the individual recognition of an All-Star nod.

"You want to make the All-Star Game a perennial thing, you want to maintain the level you’re playing at," Harris said. "But, more importantly, it has got to be team-oriented, (about) what we do as a team. The individual accolades will come.

"We see what’s being written about us, obviously we’re not being picked to win anything. But I think we set a great tone at the beginning of last year and through the All-Star break of really just focusing on what we needed to do and playing the type of basketball we can play, though we kind of faltered at the end. We’re taking the same approach this year: stay within ourselves, but believe in what we can do and then go out there and show everybody."

Getting Schooled
Harris mentioned that he's narrowing down his courses as he chips away at his sociology degree from Wisconsin. On track to take two independent studies within the major this year, he's seeking a third class. As it stands, he's about 24 credits from completing it, with the final 12 having to take place on campus. But there's no cupcake classes in this courseload:

"Clap for credit?" he asked, then deadpanned, "Nah --I used those all while I was in college, so they're out now."

Bonus Quotes
Devin on the VC trade:
"That was one of the things that you knew was coming at some point. You heard rumors toward the trade deadline, and they held off then, but you knew at some point it was going to come. When we traded Richard, when they traded J-Kidd, it kind of made sense with the way the team was going, that we were going to take the contract that he had and ‘youngify’ ourselves, try to get better and use that to bring in some younger players.

"Obviously, they liked Courtney and I’ve been a big fan of Courtney since Day One. Rafer is another guy – we’ve been kind of screaming for a third point guard and he’s a veteran guy who’s very talented. And now he’s home, so he’s got some motivation there. Tony Battie’s got some muscle that we needed inside. So it made sense. I talked to Kiki probably a couple days after the trade and he explained his mindset and what we were doing. After that point I was okay with it."

Devin on Yi Jianlian, who's so popular in China his face appears on corn ice cream:
"From what they’re telling me, he came in 10 pounds heavier. I saw a couple games of him playing in china, he looked stronger, looked more confident, a little more decisive. I think he’s ready to make that leap, but it’s still early on."