Auburn’s Tyler Harris Thinks Draymond Green Can Point Him Forward To NBA Success

Tyler Harris has taken a circuitous route to a potential NBA future. But on the eve of the 2016 NBA Draft and the next step of his basketball life, Harris is certain of one thing – he’s got what it takes to play alongside the best of the best.

“Being that 6-foot-9, 6-foot-10, being able to handle the ball, have my handle like a guard, being able to pass, having a high basketball IQ, being able to shoot the ball, shoot the ball off the dribble, rebounding, and defending – you know really all attributes of my game that translate to the NBA style of play that’s played today,” Harris said.

And while Harris, a former member of the N.C. State Wolfpack, one-time Providence Friar and, most recently, Auburn Tiger, has an obvious template for NBA success in his older brother, Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris, it’s another player on the record-setting, world-beating, can’t stop, won’t stop, soon-to-be two-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors that Harris believes can be his blueprint to a lasting and lucrative professional career.

“Being a player like Draymond, Draymond Green, play that point forward position,” Harris opined, before rattling off the innumerable ways Green has made himself an indispensable key to the Warriors success – not including the recent spate of below-the-belt shots.

It’s a list that sounds eerily similar to how Harris describes his own talents.

“Everybody really needs that point forward type of player to help give them that lift,” said Harris.

Like Harris, Green came into the league from Michigan State bearing the tweener label. Plenty of pundits tabbed Green, then a Spartan senior, as a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. They considered him a guy who could do a lot of things well, but couldn’t do any one thing spectacularly.

They also considered him a man without a position at the NBA level.

Was he a three?

A four?

But while the rest of the league quibbled over Green’s future home, Bob Myers and the rest of the Warriors organization focused on what they could do with Green, a guy who, thanks to his energy and competitive fire, thanks to his athleticism and unique skillset, now plays as a key point forward cog in their unstoppable basketball machine, allowing them to set the tone and play smaller without suffering defensively, yet another piece that willingly fades in and out of focus as the game – and Steph Curry’s stroke – dictates.

Harris, a fifth-year senior who left N.C. State after his freshman year because the coach who recruited him, Sidney Lowe, was fired even before he ever arrived, then, after graduating from Providence in 2015, landed with Auburn largely because they offered the masters in Adult Education he was seeking (and because Bruce Pearl, who had worked with Tobias to great effect at Tennessee, was there), faces a lot of the same questions.

Is he a three? He’s built like it at 6-foot-9, 220-pounds.

Can he play the stretch four? He’s got the skills for it.

Is he too old for some GM’s at 23? Seems silly on its face, especially considering the NBA isn’t the NFL and careers often last half a decade or more, but when guys are coming into the league at 18 and 19, those extra years of professional life (and contractual control) probably seem pretty important.

Can he put on weight? Can he improve his lateral agility?

“Of course I need to adjust, just like any rookie, to the NBA physicality,” said Harris, noting that, though he’s already gotten bigger and stronger since arriving at Auburn, he’ll have to continue that growth, literally and figuratively, at the next level.

“I’m a man of wanting to prove myself and I continue to work on my craft, on my body to better myself. And my weight and strength will continue to grow and come.”

The lefty knows his right side needs work as well. So does that agility. So does his shot – though he already considers his jumper “great,” he wants consistency.

So Harris works.

But while the rest of the league sees something of an unknown with a meandering collegiate history, Harris thinks he offers one specific skill that will only continue to increase in value thanks to Green’s example and the ever-evolving NBA game – his versatility.

“You know Draymond, sometimes he has to be a scorer, sometimes he has to be a facilitator, sometimes he has to be a defender,” Harris said.

The self-described “crafty” Harris thinks he can do the same.

Harris obviously isn’t a finished product, but then what incoming player is, especially in this draft year, a year in which LSU’s Ben Simmons, a talented, but clearly-flawed forward, is likely to be selected first-overall by the hapless Philadelphia 76ers?

The draft is a notoriously indecipherable endeavor, players like Harris a commodity not just hard to parse, but ultimately indiscernible, despite the hours and days (and money) spent on testing and training and analytics (just ask the fans of those hapless Sixers – so many losses, so many big men, so little legitimate talent).

So why can’t Harris, with NBA bloodlines – he’s also got an NBA cousin in Channing Frye – and obvious skills that, though they may be hard to pin down, could well be a perfect fit for an NBA still trying to catch up to Green, Curry and the uber-dominant Warriors?

And why not a first-round pick come June 23?

To his credit, Harris said he doesn’t “spend much time watching that,” when asked about mock drafts, most of which have him going in the second or unselected altogether. And while it’s probably hard for most fans to fathom ignoring talk on the internet centered on your exploits, there’s really not much else for a guy like Harris to do, but avoid it and focus on the things he can control – things like the individual team workouts that can prove so vital for less heralded players like Harris.

“I’m trying to prove to these coaches that I am a first-round draft pick and my talent is the best in this draft,” Harris said. “And my game is the best in this draft, and I’m one of the best players in this draft.

“Mock drafts don’t really tell you that, only these coaches,” he added.

Harris has already worked out for a handful of teams including the Bulls and his brother’s Pistons, has about 13 total private workouts scheduled prior to the first-round. Tobias, of course, has been a boon to Harris’ pre-draft process.

“He’s pretty much telling me right now through this process, I just gotta impress these scouts who are watching the team workouts, the head coaches who are watching the workouts,” said Harris. “With the talent that I have, my versatility, I really pretty much want to be able to show them everything that I can offer.”

And what Harris can offer is, he believes, obvious – versatility, energy, along with one year of proven ability to succeed in a free-flowing system, a system very much like the one the Warriors and Green run, while at Auburn. Of course, other than Green’s Warriors, there aren’t many NBA teams equipped to run this pace-pushing, run-and-gun and then gun some more style. The Pelicans, Pacers and Hornets all tried to incorporate aspects of it this past season, to varying degrees of success, but trying to copy the system without the requisite pieces is ill-advised. Maybe an on-the-rise team like the Timberwolves can come close in the coming years, but that’s about it.

Still, there’s no denying that the game is, if not changing, at least shifting as the Warriors assert their dominance again and again. And to Harris, Green’s accomplishments with Golden State are the foundation on which he can build his own NBA career.

The first step on that professional path comes soon. From there, it’ll be up to Harris to keep things pointed in that forward direction.