OK, so we've all seen the streetball incident across the pond, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TECwwpY4JAU&feature=related Let's put this all in perspective though. Streetball is unquestionably defenseless, which make for great highlights like the one I just posted, and lets not forget the Nets won both mathups against the Heat, clearly more important. But back the video. Should we worry about Harris' defense?? because a British teen streetballer owned him... no, no we shouldn't. There's a couple of reasons Harris made Hollinger's Rising Stars list on epsn.com .. yea yea yea i know Hollinger's analysis can be suspect, especially with all that PER crap he tries to ram down everyone's throat but one of his most relevant points dealt with Harris' STELLAR defense. Harris is quick, in fact he's got Tony Parker and Monte Ellis quickness, I'd honestly rank him among the top 5 quickets players in the league. He's also decievingly strong, I say decievingly because he's built longer and "lankier" than thicker. On-ball defensive skils work primarily off quickness, agility and strength. Look at Iverson for a perfect example, at age 33 he's still one of the top 5 quickest players but he gets pushed around, hammered on screens and isolated by offenses, why? because hes not strong, hence his on ball defense is awful. On the other hand off the ball defense, one of the reasons Iverson is not a complete defensive liability, is vision and quickness. When you add up all these attributes Harris has the makings for defensive stardom. It's really ashame he couldn't have studied behind Kidd during his early years on the Nets, even if Harris had only aquired Kidd's defenisve mind, his body could have filled in any gaps.
Keywords: Devin Harris Nets Defense
