Joe Harris isn’t quite the shooter this year that he was last year, but I’m not going to be too hard on him given that his three-point percentage last season (47.4%, holy balls) was way too high of a bar that he set for himself. His 40% three-point shooting this season looks like garbage in comparison even though 40% is still really good, because that 7% difference between current Joe Harris and three-point-champion Joe Harris is the same percentage difference between current Joe Harris and some bricklayer like Andrew Wiggins or Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Harris automatically gets a chance to defend his three-point-champion throne, right? Even if his percentage isn’t otherwise good enough to get nominated for the three-point contest? Personally, I think his percentage is good enough to get into the contest straight-up with no grandfathering rules applied, but I haven’t done any rigorous research on who the best three-point shooters are, so I could be underestimating the quality of his competition. If he does get in, I think he has a decent chance to win it all again, just because he knows how to handle the pressure of the all Money Ball rack (a dumb addition to the contest IMHO my humble opinion) as well as the pressure of the time limit.
When do they release the three-point contest roster, anyway? Did I miss it? I’m going to feel like a moron if it turns out that they released the names and I didn’t realize it, because the three-point contest is literally the only thing during the entire All-Star weekend that I watch.