2014 NBA Draft Profiles: Joe Harris

Joe Harris of Virginia could be a target for the Pelicans if they trade back into the 2014 NBA Draft. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

With news that the Pelicans are looking to trade into the NBA Draft to grab a small forward or center plenty of questions have been raised about the plan of the front office. Out of all of them though the most important seems to be which player, or players, have caught the eye of the front office enough to cause them to try to work themselves back into a pick. Instead of trying to guess exactly the player, Pelican Debrief has decided to just break down 18 small forwards and centers leading up to draft day (two reports will be posted daily) so that Pelicans fans will be ready no matter where or when the team trades into the draft and selects a player. 

Every year a few players use the workout stage to rapidly climb up the draft boards of NBA teams and get drafted much higher than originally expected. This year one of those players is Joe Harris, a wing out of the University of Virginia who started the process as a likely late second round to undrafted prospect and now looks likely to be taken in the early to mid-second round of the 2014 NBA Draft.

The Basics: 

Age: 22

Height: 6’6”

Weight: 215 lbs

Wingspan: 6’6”

Standing Reach: 8’4”

Max Vertical: 33.5

2014 Stats: 37 games, 28.8 mpg, 12 ppg, 44.1 FG%, 40 3PT%, 64 FT%, 2.9 rpg, 2.3 apg, 0.9 spg, 0.2 bpg

2014 NBA Draft Projections: Early to mid-second round.

Strengths: 

The biggest thing that Harris has going for him is his shooting ability. Harris made 40 percent of his threes this past season, making it three out of his four years in school in which he made 40 or more percent of his threes. Harris followed that up by shooting the lights out at the NBA Combine where he knocked in 16 of his 25 spot up three pointers. At the very least Harris is going to be able to knock down shots wherever his professional career takes him.

Harris compliments his shooting ability with a few things that will keep defenses honest. First he can attack an overaggressive closeout with a quick first step that will get him to the rim and in position to score or get finished. Harris also is comfortable working off screens to get his shot and showed a great willingness to pass when defenses overcompensated to him getting free off those screens. He won’t force bad shots just to take them and will put his team in the best position to succeed with the proper basketball play whenever he steps on the floor.

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Weaknesses: 

All of the weakness teams will see in Harris come based off of his length and athleticism. Unlike many other prospects in this year’s draft Harris doesn’t have extreme length and athleticism. Instead he possesses an incredibly short wingspan, like shortest out of all the wings at the NBA combine short. Unfortunately for Harris he doesn’t make up for that with the ability to jump out of the gym or recover quickly with great speed. At Virginia Harris hid that a bit by understanding completely the defensive rotations in the tough Virginia pack line defense but at times it didn’t matter as better athletes were able to just rise up and score over him.

Offensively the lack of athleticism and length will probably limit Harris to more of just a spot up shooter. Against the giants that he will see in the NBA, Harris won’t be able to just overpower people and with short arms and no explosiveness, finishing at the rim is going to be very hard. He will make up a bit for it with his passing and probably with some pull-up jumpers but there will never be a point where Harris becomes an elite scorer.

Projected Role: At best Harris is essentially going to be James Jones. He will make threes, not dribble much and try not to hurt his team on defense. The shooting will give him a shot in the NBA but how he compensates for the lack of athleticism will determine how long he stays.

Information and measurments for this scouting report were found at DraftExpress. For more on Harris including an interview with DX you can go here.