Nets guard/forward Joe Harris will undergo surgery on his left ankle and will miss the rest of the season, general manager Sean Marks announced to the YES Network on Thursday.
Harris underwent an arthroscopic procedure—removing a bone particle—on the same ankle on Nov. 29. The 30-year-old injured his ankle in a game against the Thunder on Nov. 14.
When Harris was initially injured, he was slated to miss anywhere between four to eight weeks.
“We feel terrible for Joe... he's the one stalwart that's been here from the beginning and for him to not be part of this run we are about to go on, physically on the court, I couldn’t put that into words,” Marks said. “I know Joe is heartbroken and not contributing on the court with his teammates.”
In 14 games this season, Harris averaged 11.3 points per game. The Nets will face another obstacle with the absence of Harris on the same night that forward Kevin Durant makes his return to Brooklyn's lineup against the Heat.
Durant went down with injury on Jan. 15 in the Nets’ victory against the Pelicans. He suffered a sprained ankle, causing him to miss 21 games. The Nets went 5–16 in his absence and made changes to the makeup of their roster, sending James Harden to the 76ers for Ben Simmons and others in return.
The Nets (32–31) sit at eighth place in the Eastern Conference and 4.5 games behind Boston for the sixth seed, which would get them out of the play-in round of the NBA playoffs.
