Over the primary handful of video games, the San Antonio Spurs have got down to make a press release. Previous to final night time’s loss to the Lakers, they sat at twelfth in defensive score, twelfth in web score, and, maybe surprisingly, eleventh in offensive score (all adjusted for energy of schedule per dunksandthrees.com).
Whereas a lot of that’s rightfully attributed to their younger celebrity, Victor Wembanyama, he’s getting some assist early on from his even youthful teammates on the margins. Notable is one rookie, Dylan Harper.
Harper was chosen 2nd general and is making noise wherever he can. Nonetheless, one ability that jumps out instantly, and has confirmed to be essential to success on this “pace-and-space” period of basketball, is his transition scoring.
A fast glimpse into his highlights versus the Brooklyn Nets and it’s full of transition buckets. His mixture of velocity, footwork, deal with, and consciousness provides him the toolkit to be a go-to scorer on the break.
San Antonio was respectable in transition final 12 months, and early on this season has proven indicators of enchancment. Over the 138 minutes Harper has been on the ground, the group is plus 20.8 factors per 100 possessions of transition play; they added 6.4 factors per 100 possessions general by transition play, rating within the 97th percentile and 98th percentile, respectively.
Honing in on his particular person numbers, Harper is averaging a particularly environment friendly 1.6 factors per transition possession and drawing a foul 30 p.c of the time.
In fact, these numbers will not be sustainable and ought to be taken with a heaping bowl of salt, if not just for the truth that they’re derived from 6 video games and solely a handful of possessions (in opposition to Brooklyn at that). They may, inevitably, begin to regress to the imply because the pattern measurement grows. That being mentioned, there’s motive to consider there’s extra of this to return.
As alluded to, these buckets haven’t come from clear paths. However reasonably a mix of his abilities. This could come within the type of a euro-step, hesitation, or an and-1.
Every certainly one of these confirmed that Harper isn’t intimidated to need to beat a defender in house. He’s too proficient and can solely add to that software bag from right here.
This hypothesis compounds with the truth that San Antonio nonetheless has but to debut what is perhaps the quickest level guard within the league, De’Aaron Fox. Traditionally, for the reason that 2021-2022 season, Fox himself has hovered across the ninetieth percentile in transition plus-minus, except for final 12 months.
This then provides the protection a “decide your poison” state of affairs when attempting to defend fast-breaks if the 2 guards are on the ground collectively. Conversely, it ensures the group all the time has a go-to man on the break if their minutes are staggered. It simply provides Mitch Johnson a extra numerous hand of playing cards to play with. What’s extra, this is just one of many abilities Harper has exhibited in his brief profession so far.
The quantity 2 decide was a shock to the Spurs however Harper’s expertise shouldn’t be. It’s uncommon for a rookie to contribute to profitable straight away, not to mention this rapidly, however Harper has already proven he’s greater than succesful.
Sadly, Harper is sidelined with a calf pressure and there’s no timetable for his return. Spurs followers anxiously await his return.
