NBA Draft Rumors: Harry Giles is healthy and creeping towards the lottery

Harry Giles’ continued recovery from knee surgery has some teams considering taking him with a lottery pick.

Harry Giles has done well enough recovering his athleticism after a series of knee surgeries over the past few years to draw consideration as a potential lottery pick. Giles’ progress was reported in a tweet from NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper.

Giles spent his sole college season with the Duke Blue Devils and was the No. 1 overall recruit in the country last year. He missed his senior year of high school with a torn right ACL. Giles also tore his ACL, MCL, and meniscus in his left knee while with Team USA in 2013.

Giles underwent yet another knee operation in October of last year and missed six weeks. He went on to appear in 26 games for Duke and averaged 3.9 points and 3.8 rebounds over 11.5 minutes per contest.

And now, in spite of having three knee surgeries on his resume before his 20th birthday, some teams are seriously considering using a lottery pick on Harry Giles.

Granted, Howard-Cooper did importantly note that not all teams are sold on Giles, as they should not be. He has the size at 6-foot-10, 240-pounds, and was indeed the top recruit in the country not long ago, but he still barely played as a freshman and comes with health concerns. The fact that he even declared for the draft in spite of his limited playing time is puzzling.

But the fact of the matter is that Giles has clearly proven to scouts and executives alike that his knees are feeling okay, thus the consideration for him as a lottery pick. His talent ceiling is certainly there, plus fans didn’t get much of a chance to see him in action at Duke. He didn’t even score a single point in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Next: 10 Biggest NBA Draft Mistakes of All-Time

Either way, Giles just became a name to watch in Thursday’s draft.