dylan harper scouting report

great size at 6'6 with a 6'10 wingspan on or off the ball. On the ball, he just assaults the rim - he's averaging 8.7 drives per game. he'll use his pace, stopping and starting, leveraging his size, and finishing over the top of smaller guards. he has eurosteps, carryovers, hop steps, can finish off of two feet, hang finishes, floaters, same hand same foot finishes, and the handle to match. he combines that craftiness with his handle to both hands, not having to overdribble and get to his spots, but methodically prodding the gaps and lanes until he finds an overplay with his spins, hesis, crossovers, and has a NASTY in and out dribble to fake defenders, who are always playing the drive. If he's cut off, he'll just bully his way to find an opening. Even then, he has unlimited dribble counters to carve his way downhill. He’ll switch hands mid-air or just step into weird places where defenders can’t exactly stay in front of his layup. His body contorts and he moves the ball around to keep it away from defenders in the air too.

He'll go slow, then accelerate just to stop and pump fake and go up for 2. He can go into the post and get to the rim from there as well. His right hand as a finisher can be inconsistent, but he can show decent touch with it at times and the willingness to use it is more important. He's had some flaws as a self creator this playoffs, and isn't an elite athlete, but that's never mattered since he has the physical tools and it's not like he's slow. He'll often use a split dribble to get through the gaps, just split ball screens, and more importantly he's low in all facets of his game - his low center of gravity just makes everything a lot easier for him. He can go under the rim around rim protectors, and has vertical pop in space.

Off the ball, he'll dive to the rim, use a second cut, and run ahead of the ball in transition. His pull up shooting is worrying for me. Defenders will go under ball screens, but wemby's gravity as a roller attracts two and that gives harper the space he needs to get downhill anyways. He's tall enough to dunk from a standstill, which makes rim protectors have to foul him more often when he gets the ball down there. He has touch on his shot, but his set point is to the left of his head, low, and his palm seems to flatten with the ball, making the release laboring at times. The arc can be low, and the way the ball goes in can vary. He hasn't shot a good percentage from there early on, but picked it up later.

His size helps him shoot over defenders, and he's shooting 36% on catch and shoot 3s this year, which means ignoring him to load up at the rim isn't as effective. It's worth nothing that last game OKC helped off of him, showing his shooting still needs a little work. However, he does shoot a mid range sometimes to keep the defense honest and not just lay back for the drive. He's flashed a fadeaway off of a jump stop, and a spin move fade or a simple pull up, but it’s not consistent yet and he rarely shoots these shots. His volume from 3 needs to go up (2.6 per game) and his makes per game (0.9) aren't exactly amazing, but the tape shows encouraging signs of him trying to shoot. His passing isn't complex, but he can make basic reads like kickouts, alley oops to wemby, he's unselfish, and more importantly his patience and rim pressure open up passing angles: defenders are paying attention to him and that opens the rim for dump offs, or a one more pass. His PnR polish has been improving, he'll willingly hit that pocket pass, although his eyes can get down and he can miss some of the more versatile reads that the best playmakers hit. He dosen't exactly manipulate the defense with his eyes either. Wemby's gravity helps him and dylan helps wemby with extra creation.

On defense, he has really good feet and can flip his hips to cut off driving angles, and he's really physical with his positioning: smaller guards who are quick get bumped off of their line trying to get by him in space. He dosen't gamble in the passing lanes, his off ball defense isn't excellent but it's solid, although once in a while he is late to a rotation. He tags the roller early and his length gives him some rim protection value, especially since he isnt afraid to get dunked on. He slides through screens and his physical tools let him recover if he's clipped by bigger guys. He fouls too much though, but i'd rather that then passive defense.