SAN FRANCISCO – The awkward scene is one Dallas Mavericks guard Devin Harris probably will never forget.
The Mavs had just finished a shootaround at the Olympic Club in San Francisco when Harris received the sobering news that he had been traded to the Denver Nuggets. It was Feb. 8 of last season – the day of the trading deadline and the day the Mavs were preparing to play the Golden State Warriors.
It was the day the Mavs executed a three-team deal that landed them Doug McDermott, and it also was the last time Harris and the Mavs practiced in this swanky upscale facility in downtown San Francisco until Friday. The (bad) memories were not lost on Harris.
“It resonates, but it’s out of my control,” Harris said. “It happens. It’s not the first time I was traded, it might not be the last time I get traded.
“Once it happens the first time you’re over the initial shock. It’s just something that you deal with and you move on and you get acclimated to a new team.”
Unfortunately, when trades happen in the middle of the season, sometimes the player has to move on to the next city and leave the wife and kids back in the previous city they played in. That was the case with Harris.
“I left to go to Denver and the family stayed behind (in Dallas),” Harris said. “Obviously I would like to see them a little bit more, but the kids were still in school.
“They came on some weekends and spring break, but for the most part I’m in Denver alone and just trying to get it done.”
Harris has certainly gotten it done this year with the Mavs, who signed him to a free agent contract this past summer after he played the final 27 games of last season with the Nuggets. Harris played just six minutes opening day against the Phoenix Suns because of a strained left hamstring and then missed the ensuing 10 games.
Counting the contest against the Suns, the Mavs posted a 3-8 record when Harris was sidelined. But once he returned on Nov. 10 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, both Harris and the Mavs had a rebirth and a fresh new strut in their step.
Not only did the Mavs race to a 12-3 record upon Harris’ immediate return, but it was as if the team took on a new life with him on the court. Coincident?
“I don’t think it coincided with me coming back,” Harris said, referring to the Mavs’ winning ways. “I think as a team we just, defensively, something clicked for us.
“Obviously, we have kind of lost that in the last (four) games that we’ve had. But defensively is where we made our mark and when we started winning consistently.”
The Mavs (15-15) hope they can start clicking on defense again on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. when they play the Warriors (21-11) at Oracle Arena in Oakland.
Harris averages 6.9 points in 15.7 minutes per game this season and is one of the key components on the Mavs’ defense. And yes, coach Rick Carlisle remembers when the Mavs started making waves in the NBA this season.
“Our success this year has been coincided with his coming back from the original injury,” Carlisle said of Harris.
“So he’s a very important guy, there’s no question about that.’’
As far as that trade deadline deal that last season sent Harris to the Nuggets, Carlisle said: “That was light years ago.”
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