Joe Harris is slated to return for the Nets Saturday night, and Seth Curry could make his season debut as well, listed as questionable and expected to be a game-time decision against Indiana.
“Seth and I have [been] together a lot, even this summer, in terms of rehab situation and then returning back to play. We’ve had a number of stay-readies and stuff together,” Harris said. “I know he’s excited to come back and play and I know we’re excited to have him. He’s an unbelievable player and he’s going to help us out a ton.”
But both are managing ankle issues coming back from offseason surgeries, and acknowledge their problems are hardly behind them. Harris admits he may be managing his foot and ankle for awhile going forward this season, while Curry acknowledges he still feels pain in a recovery that hasn’t gone quite as expected.
“It’s getting better. Slowly getting better and better. Just working through all the steps to get back on the court and not only get my ankle right but get my overall game in the proper shape to be able to play at the level I need to be at,” said Curry, who practiced with G League Long Island on Thursday. “Hopefully I’m feeling good and I can get out there and get back to competing and help the team.”
Curry was carrying an ankle injury when he arrived in the February trade with Ben Simmons, and played through discomfort for the rest of last season. After having surgery this summer, he had hoped to be ready for camp, then later expected to debut in the preseason finale.
“There’s been good days, good weeks and bad weeks. I thought it’d be a little faster honestly. I thought I’d be ready a couple months ago,” Curry said. “But it’s hard to tell with rehab, a couple different things done to the ankle. But overall it’s been progressing just a little slower than I thought it would. But I wouldn’t say anything alarming set it back.
“Definitely still a little bit of pain or discomfort. Some days I feel really good and other days the recovery is tough. So I mean if there wasn’t pain or discomfort, I’d be giving it a go. So weird thing I’m trying to work through, and like I said we’d thought it’d just get better but it’s just very slow.”
Harris hurt his ankle last November, and the injury limited him to just 14 appearances and required two surgeries. The veteran played in the preseason opener and missed the next four straight with a sore foot. He sat out Thursday’s loss to Dallas, managing his ankle.
“Yeah, it’s going to be a consistent theme here in the early part of the season where my foot-ankle is just not quite used to high-intensity loads,” Harris said. “I’m doing everything that I can to make sure it’s in a proper place to play and compete.
“But I don’t think this is going to be a consistent theme in terms of not playing back-to-backs. I’m hopeful to play the next back-to-back…but it’s more about managing swelling, load and all of that. And a lot of that kind of falls back on me individually. I work with the performance staff, but a lot of it is on me, just making sure that I’m managing it in the correct way to get myself ready to play.”
Harris, usually a starter who has been logging roughly 20 minutes off the bench, knows he could be managing the issue for some time.
“Yeah, definitely. It’s hard to put an estimate on when the ankle and the foot is going to be back to 100 percent. I was off of it, I didn’t play in an NBA game for 11 months,” Harris said. “It’s going to take a little time to get acclimated. But that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing now.”
Curry and Harris are Nos. 1 and 2 among active players in 3-point percentage, third and fourth all-time per game. They’ll help a Nets team that’s fifth-worst in 3-point percentage (32.1) and sixth-worst in makes (10.2).
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