I believe Gary Harris makes a lot of sense for this team moving forward.
Why the Nuggets do this:- Bring in more playoff/championship experience
- Bolster their front court depth
- Gasol is a significant upgrade over Plumlee
- Gasol would play backup to Jokic. I believe at his age, he'll be better suited as the backup C getting 15-25 minutes depending on the matchup
- Gasol & Jokic share a similar playing style and therefore Coach Malone could run the same sets with Gasol on and Jokic off
- Gasol is a much more reliable option than Plumlee, when Jokic gets subbed off in late game situations for defensive purposes
- The rise of Beasley makes Harris expendable (Beasley is 2 years younger & has shown he's more than capable of starting at the 2)
- Powell would be a solid back-up for Beasley
- Frees up about 7-8mil of cap space for the Nuggets in the off-season
- Nuggets, who have one of the best development staff in the league, can afford to experiment with the G-League MVP & DPOY
- Overall, this trade just makes the Nuggets a much more dangerous team in the playoffs
Why The Raptors do this: - Buy Low on Gary Harris
- He's only 24
- On a very respectable contract 3 years left (18, 19, 20mil respectively)
- 3+D Type of player: An elite shooter, high basketball IQ, very athletic (suuuuper quick + explosive), tenacious defender
- Harris would be a perfect fit beside Siakam (whom we're building the team around). They'd be absolutely lethal on the fastbreak & would work the drive n kick offense to perfection
Last year could be considered very uncharacteristic of Harris and an outlier.
He struggled during the regular season last year (2018-19) because of injuries but still elevated his game & numbers in the playoffs. That's a sign of an elite player with star potential. Loves to play on the big stage and not to mention, he has all the tools to be successful.