If the name Gary Harris doesn’t exactly get you amped about the future of the Nuggets’ shooting guard, I’m not surprised. After being selected 19th overall in last year’s draft, the former Michigan State product entered the NBA and immediately faded into obscurity.

Throughout his college career, Harris was viewed as one of the top NBA prospects in the nation, the prototypical “three-and-D” player; even if he wasn’t the most athletic player in college basketball, he was seen as one of the most NBA ready.

That was not the case.

When Brian Shaw did give Harris a chance to get on the floor — which wasn’t often — veterans consistently took advantage of his rookie frame, and his shot never fell. After 55 games, Harris finished the season shooting 30 percent from the field and 20 percent from deep; that’s not good, even by rookie standards.

But with Harris, as with the rest of the roster, I think we need to put last season behind us as quickly as possible — a mulligan. There was enough dysfunction in that locker room that I don’t believe it would be fair to act as if anybody on the Denver Nuggets showed their full potential under Shaw.

So with that said, let’s reevaluate.

Unlike last season, coach Michael Malone is going to give Harris every opportunity to prove himself, even when everything doesn’t go right. That alone can go a long ways towards building a young player’s confidence. And maybe that’s what Harris needs — confidence. He never looked comfortable in a Nuggets uniform a year ago, and I’m guessing a big part of that was because he was yanked from the game every time something went wrong.

Harris has the talent. We saw it in college, and we’ve seen it this preseason. Not only is he showing the defensive intensity scouts fell in love with at Michigan State, but his shot is falling, too.

In the five games he has appeared in this preseason, Harris is averaging 11.2 points on 50 percent shooting from the field, 46.7 percent from deep and 87.5 percent from the line. It’s small sample size, but honestly, so was last season.

Now, Malone has made it clear that he’s going to give Harris every opportunity to be the Nuggets starting two-guard; he’ll have to earn it, but for this Nuggets team, the development of Harris is a lot more important than the security of playing a guy like Randy Foye.

What Nuggets fans need to know is that if Harris can reach his full potential — and yes, it’s still a big if — then he’s going to be an integral part of this franchise for a long time. No, he’s never going to be a superstar or a 20-point scorer, but he could be Denver’s version of Danny Green, the third or fourth best player on a very good team that can hit fire from three and lock down the opponent’s No. 1 option on defense.

So wipe the slate clean and get excited for what Garry Harris is going to show us in 2015-16.