Gary Harris suffered a partially torn groin muscle and is expected to miss four to six weeks, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link). The injury occurred on Monday night during the Nuggets’ first preseason game.
Denver has several options to replace Harris’ production in the starting lineup. Will Barton unexpectedly excelled last season off the bench and coach Mike Malone could insert him into the starting lineup to begin the year. While Barton is certainly qualified to be the team’s starting shooting guard, I’ll speculate that 2016 No. 7 overall pick Jamal Murray gets the nod. Malik Beasley is an excellent shooter and lurks as a candidate to see increased minutes should Harris’ injury linger.
The Bulls selected Harris with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2014 draft and subsequently dealt him to the Nuggets in the Doug McDermott draft night trade. He averaged 8.5 points in 24.1 minutes per game over the last two seasons.
I forgot he was traded for McBuckets. Man I wish the bulls front office had half a brain and kept Harris.