Nick Nurse Pleased With Mistake Free Playing Time From Jalen Harris

The Toronto Raptors are going to give Jalen Harris some more meaningful playing time to let him develop over the final two weeks of the season

Aaron Rose | May 2, 2021

Jeffrey Swinger-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Raptors are taking a more developmental approach to wrap up the season.

They aren't totally out of the play-in hunt, but considering they're three games out of the 10th seed with just eight games to go this year it's extremely unlikely they'll make up the difference to catch the Washington Wizards. Instead, they're looking to give some of their younger players more playing time and that means rookie second-round pick, Jalen Harris, is going to see his minutes tick up for the next couple of weeks.

When the Raptors drafted Harris with the 59th pick in last year's draft, they saw a fearless and athletic guard who showed an impressive ability to carry a significant offensive load.

"[He's] just a really interesting player who's shown some potential to put up big buckets," Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman said on draft night. "He's just a competitor and he doesn't seem to back down at all."

This year, they watched as he averaged 17.6 points on 45.7% shooting and 50% 3-point shooting in seven games with the Raptors 905. Now they're letting him get some NBA run and if Saturday night was any indication, the 22-year-old guard certainly looks comfortable playing with the big boys.

“He’s pretty athletic and fast and again, he’s got some courage," Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Saturday. "He didn’t look out of place at all in the guts of a really, really tough game. So, that is encouraging. We just need to see what else he can do right now."

Most of the season when Harris has checked into games it's been in garbage time when the outcome of the game was already decided. On Saturday, however, things were different. Nurse brought him in midway through the second quarter in a four-point game. It wasn't a long showing, just under four minutes, but it was enough to warrant another look in the coming days.

“The expectations now are for us to see him a little bit [more]," Nurse said. "I think he did a good job out there. It was just a brief spell but I could see his minutes going up. We need to see him play.

"I think he looked good out there, played confident. Didn’t make any mistakes really. So, just wanted to ride it with some of the guys that played tonight, but I could see maybe tomorrow give him more minutes for sure ... and going forward."

Considering how stunted Harris' development was this season because of a truncated G-League season and injury issues, the next two weeks are going to be crucial as he heads into his first real NBA offseason.

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