Thursday night at the NBA Draft, Devin Harris truly experienced the best of both worlds. For starters, the Wisconsin star was a lottery pick. And not just any lottery pick, either. Harris was the fifth overall selection in the entire draft. That”s pretty heady stuff.
Oh, but it gets even better for the aspiring NBA star. Unlike most of his fellow lottery picks, Harris will not have to suffer in the bottom of the league”s barrel. While the two point guards chosen ahead of him, Shaun Livingston and Ben Gordon, are suffering on the current basketball bottom feeders that are the Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago Bulls, Harris will be playoff-bound with the Dallas Mavericks.
‘I had no idea until today there might be a chance [going] to Dallas,’ Harris said from New York. ‘It worked out that way and I got the phone call.’
It worked out quite well for the Big Ten”s Player of the Year. Thanks to a trade that sent himself, Jerry Stackhouse and Christian Laettner from Washington to Dallas, Harris will not have to adjust to life in the NBA and losing all at the same time. While Washington was a far better alternative than being sentenced to Atlanta or Toronto, it is no Dallas. The Mavericks are about as good as it gets for a highly-drafted rookie.
Dallas is a team in somewhat of a transition. Rumors abound about a possible trade for Shaquille O”Neal and Tracy McGrady wants to join him there. However, regardless of what transpires in the offseason, one thing is for certain: Dallas will be a competitive, star-studded team and it appears that Harris will indeed be a part of it.
As things stand at the moment, Harris would join a roster that includes Dirk Nowitski, Antoine Walker, Stackhouse and Michael Finley. With Steve Nash presumably on his way out via free agency, the starting point guard job appears to belong to Harris. What point guard would not relish the opportunity to pick up assist after assist on Nowitski jump shots? Even in a ‘worst-case scenario’ in which Nash stays in Dallas, Harris learns from one of the game”s best point guards before eventually taking the reins of the Mavericks” fast break attack.
Depending on how the offseason shakes out, Harris could also have the opportunity to form and all-Badger backcourt with Finley, an exciting prospect not only for Devin but for the entire state of Wisconsin.
‘I think that would be great to have two guys from the same school on a team,’ said Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who accompanied his star pupil to New York. ‘I think it would be a really positive image for people who have supported Badger athletics. That”s exciting. I think they could play together very easily and I think they would enjoy playing together.’
Not only does Harris join a talented roster, but one with a highly respected coaching staff in the father-son tandem of Don and Donnie Nelson. The one-time coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, Don Nelson has over 40 years of experience in the NBA, having been in the league as a player, coach and executive.
‘I have a lot of respect for those guys,’ Ryan said of the Nelsons. ‘They know basketball, they”ve lived it. They eat, sleep and drink it.’
After ending up in Dallas, Harris is certainly not complaining about being picked behind Gordon and Livingston.
‘Top fifteen picks — it doesn”t really matter who goes where, it”s pretty much who fits best in the organization,’ Harris said. ‘It”s just a matter of how they fit in with the team.’
For Harris, there simply could not have been a better fit than the Mavericks.
