Exit Interviews: Devin Harris Devin Harris reflects on his 2014-15 season with the Mavs.

Devin Harris repeated his role this season as a sixth man and combo guard, playing both the 1 and 2 in the Mavs’ offense and occasionally even closing games running point. While combo guard is simple on paper — a guy who can play both on and off the ball — it’s a very demanding job which often requires the player to defend opponents who are either much bigger or much smaller than him. Also, it’s not always easy to stay in rhythm as a point guard if the ball isn’t in your hands most of the time.

That wasn’t the case at all for Harris this season, however, who ran the pick-and-roll effectively as a 1 and shot the three well as a 2. Once again, he came up big in his role as the third guard in a system that asks a lot from the backcourt and in many respects played better than he did last year.

SEASON STATS

PTS AST FG% 3PT% STL 8.8 3.1 41.8 35.7 1.0

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

A huge reason why Harris’ field goal percentage was just 41.8 percent in 2014-15 is because more than half of his attempts were three-pointers. He connected on those at a 35.7 percent clip, a very solid rate for a guard who very often was asked to do other things besides just shooting. He hit 48.1 percent of his two-pointers, which is right in line with his career average.

The most pleasantly surprising element of his shot chart this season was how insanely effective he was shooting from either corner. From both combined, he shot 59.6 on corner threes, an astronomically high number. This isn’t particularly out of character for him, though — he connected at a 57.1 percent rate in 2011-12, albeit on a lower volume of attempts, and he’s a career 42.6 percent shooter on corner threes, per Basketball-Reference.

It’s almost unfair to expect any player to continue hitting those shots at such a high rate, but it will be interesting to see if Harris is used in those spots more regularly. He was seventh in the NBA from the left corner among players who took at least 20 attempts, and he led the league from the right corner among players who took at least 20. In today’s NBA, that’s a very useful skill, especially for players on a team which runs a lot of pick-and-roll. A dangerous corner shooter can shift the geometry of the defense, and when paired with the right players in other places on the court — like Dirk Nowitzki at the top of the key, for example — it creates a scenario in which at least one player will be open at all times.

Harris was also a terrific distributor of the ball this season. Per Synergy, he created 2.325 points per assist during the 2014-15 campaign, and the 1.322 points he averaged per possession plus assist — a metric that takes into account a player’s own efficiency in addition to shots he creates for others — ranked 19th in the NBA among players with at least 100 possessions. His 12.5 turnover percentage was a career-best mark, as was his individual offensive rating of 113 points per 100 possessions.

He was worth more win shares per 48 minutes this season (.120) than he has in any since his All-Star campaign in 2008-09. Clearly he was an important piece to this team despite playing only 22.2 minutes per game, his second-lowest total since his rookie season.

STANDOUT SHOWING

Before the Rajon Rondo trade, and even fairly often afterward, Harris was the point guard to finish the game for the Mavs, not Rondo or his preceding starter Jameer Nelson. Arguably Harris’ finest outing of the season came in a Dec. 2 road win against the Chicago Bulls, a double-overtime thriller you might remember most for Monta Ellis’ late-game heroics.

However, Harris was spectacular for the whole night, reaching the 20-point plateau for one of three times this season on 7-of-10 shooting, including a sizzling 6-of-6 mark from beyond the three-point line. He added eight assists against just one turnover, plus four rebounds and a steal to boot.

CONTRACT STATUS

Harris is under contract for another three seasons including 2015-16, and at this point it’s hard to envision a scenario in which he won’t be at least the third guard on the Mavs next season. He’s simply too versatile a player, as he can work from both the point guard and shooting guard spots in the lineup, and he can either be the primary ball-handler or act as a spot-up shooter. His flexibility and willingness to come off the bench in the sixth man role have been valuable assets for the Mavs the past two seasons, and it’s been beneficial for him as well.

Harris Lands in the Seats Devin Harris hustles for a ball out-of-bounds and ends up in the first row seats.

FUTURE OUTLOOK

Harris will turn 33 next February, and it will be his 12th NBA campaign. He’s got the shooting touch to play another several seasons in the league, so long as he can remain a consistent from the three-point line. Despite battling through injuries the past few seasons, as well, he’s still athletic enough to defend quicker guards and he’s got the size to match up against bigger ones.

As Harris’ career unfolds, it will be interesting to see if he remains in the combo guard role that former Mav Jason Terry and current sixth man Jamal Crawford have established in the league. He played more shooting guard this season than he has in many years past throughout his career, and he even defended some small forwards when the Mavs went to a three-guard lineup. You would suspect that as a bigger point guard ages and his athleticism might slip, he would be able to seamlessly transition to 2-guard. That was certainly the case for Harris this season, but time — and the makeup of the roster around him — will tell if that will continue.