The Boston Celtics should focus their recruitment efforts on Joe Harris

The Boston Celtics have all hands on deck for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China. Sending over four Celtics, Boston will have an insider’s edge to recruit any members of Team USA to join them by seeing how their games mesh. A new target has recently emerged.

Team USA 2019 has four of the five most important players on the Boston Celtics. Ipso facto, the success of this year’s FIBA team directly correlates to the future of the franchise.

When Tim Reynolds revealed on Twitter that Team USA will be adding De’Aaron Fox and Joe Harris, Celtics nation should have been elated. Both players will be bonding with the core of the 2019-20 Boston Celtics, which increases the likelihood that both end up in Beantown at some point or another. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan showed what an Olympic gold medal can do for a friendship this past July.

After the Brooklyn Nets took away the Boston Celtics’ best player in Irving, Boston should be plotting its return fire. Apparently Spencer Dinwiddie and Irving first linked this past December to open the door for a union with the Nets. Since tampering no longer seems to be something enforced in the NBA, the Celtics should do a little behind-closed-doors recruiting of their own.

Their target? The league’s top 3-point shooter, Joe Harris.

Harris practicing with the national team is a good indicator that the former ACC Player of the Year may have a shot at making the team. If he does, he will almost certainly be receiving minutes alongside some combination of Walker, Tatum and Brown. Harris’ 3-point shooting will allow Team USA to get up and down the court with one of the premiere transition pull-up threats in the NBA.

Being that he is a free agent in 2020, Harris could well be a casualty of the Nets’ financial situation. Brooklyn is facing extensions for Caris LeVert and Taurean Prince. Harris could be squeezed out of the picture if the Nets approach the luxury tax.

The Boston Celtics are an ideal landing spot for Harris. His 3-point shooting is a great fit on any team, but in Boston he would open up the lanes for Walker, Tatum and Brown. Any move that could help Brown and Tatum ascend even further is a no-brainer. Continuing to add high-character guys should be Danny Ainge’s priority after seeing poor locker-room culture destroy a talented 2018-19 Celtics team.

We will see what Harris accomplishes on Team USA if he makes the roster. Anything he does well could lead to pricing himself out of Brooklyn and the Boston Celtics awaiting with familiar and friendly faces.