Rutgers point guard Dylan Harper is expected to hear his name called second in Wednesday night's NBA Draft. He will presumably join a San Antonio Spurs team that is ready to start winning games. He will learn first-hand from an established star guard in De'Aaron Fox, with a prime lob threat and stretch big in Victor Wembanyama as his running mate.
Harper enjoyed a productive season at Rutgers despite injuries and a general lack of talent around him. The Scarlet Knights weren't very good, but Harper consistently made his case to NBA teams, averaging 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists on .484/.333/.750 splits.
The son of former NBA star Ron Harper and the brother of fellow Rutgers standout Ron Harper Jr., Harper's basketball genes are well-documented. His father put together a historic career, winning five championship rings between the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Whereas his father was more of a glue guy wing, Harper is a legitimate on-ball creator at 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds. He will need to polish his jump shot and commit to improving on defense, but Harper has all the tools NBA teams covet in a modern point guard. He has positional size, unbelievable strength, and a high feel for the game.
The question is...
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Can Dylan Harper outperform Ron Harper in the NBA?
The short answer is... yes, he can.
While it's unwise to expect five NBA championships on his résumé two decades from now, Dylan Harper should put up numbers on par, if not far exceeding his father's professional output. Ron Harper wasn't just a role player — he spent five years averaging 18-plus points per game in Cleveland and Inglewood back in the late 80s and early 90s — but he finished his illustrious 15-year career without a single All-Star berth.
We can't predict the future, but Harper has all the makings of a multi-time All-Star whose on-ball skill set gives him a chance to emerge as San Antonio's main focal point offensively. He will spend a great deal of time setting the table for Wemby, who is unquestionably the centerpiece of San Antonio's roster, but Harper has what it takes to handle significant usage.
It will probably take time for San Antonio to sift through its various options in the backcourt — odds are Harper will take a backseat to Fox early in his career — but if all goes to plan, Harper, through sheer talent and force of will, ought to take the commands.
He's the most prolific rim-scoring guard in to enter the NBA in quite some time. Harper is an aggressive slasher, committed to putting two feet in the paint and forcing the defense to collapse. While not overly explosive, Harper has the strength to bully smaller guards and the craft to evade slow-footed wings. He operates at his own pace, mixing speeds and incorperating a deep bag of tricks to create advantages and sustain them — whether that means plowing to the rim for a layup or kicking it to the open shooter. Harper's poise, vision and overall feel for how to manipulate a defense is special.
Ron Harper averaged 22.9 points as a rookie with the Cavs. That probably isn't in the cards for his son. But when projecting the cumulative output of Dylan Harper over a decade-plus career, with an elite frontcourt partner in Wemby and a strong developmental staff behind him in San Antonio, it's not hard to project — with confidence — that Dylan will be the greatest of the Harper lineage in NBA history. That is surely what the Spurs how to be true when Harper walks across the stage as the second overall pick.