A year after failure, is the son of a famous person still the second-tier show?

A year ago, Dylan Harper entered university with the halo of McDonald's Star MVP and Jordan Classic MVP. He was once optimistic that he had the opportunity to challenge this year's draft No. 1 pick. Especially at the end of November last year, when the NCAA scored two 30+ points back-to-back scores, media public opinion once tied Dylan Harper and Cooper Flag to the No. 1 pick.

However, as the season deepened, Dylan Harper was affected by the flu in January 2025, and his weight dropped significantly. His projection data did not improve steadily for almost a whole year. In the end, the predicted ranking dropped sharply, and he cannot even guarantee the second pick.

Dylan Harper's father is Ron Harper. Anyone who has experienced the 1990s should be familiar with him. From 1994 to 99, he played for the then Chicago Bulls and experienced the second three consecutive championships in the Bulls dynasty. After 1999, he transferred to the Los Angeles Lakers and played until after 2001. During 1999-00 and 2000-01, he won two championships with the OK combination at that time, with a total of five championships in his career.

Dylan Harper's brother Ron Harper Jr., is also an NBA player. He used to play for the Raptors and currently plays with the Pistons as a two-way contract. For Dylan Harper, the whole family has good basketball genes. But whether it is his father, brother, or even Dylan Harper himself, physical talent has never been their advantage. Being able to build a foothold in the NBA depends more on basketball skills and game players.

Dylan Harper is not a talented player. His physical condition is relatively ordinary. In 2024, he ranked eighth in the United States on the high school ranking website, and his evaluation on ESPN is even lower. Although he is also listed as a five-star high school student, he is only ranked 19th in the country. The starting point for his draft prediction rankings to begin to rise was last year's McDonald's Star Game and Jordan Classic Game, with signs of strength continuing until his college years.

Playing for Rutgers this year, Dylan Harper averaged 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4 assists and 1.4 steals per game, shooting percentage of 48.4% and three-point shooting percentage of 33.3%. Judging from college players, this data is definitely excellent. Judging from this score, there is actually no problem in the end to win the second place. But if we look at the performance on the field, it is still worth a question mark whether Dylan Harper is really suitable for the second place.

At Rutgers University this year, compared with other players, Rutgers' twin stars Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey have obvious advantages, so the ball rights are concentrated in the hands of the two. Such a situation will inevitably change significantly after entering the NBA in the future. Dylan Harper's performance without the ball is still worth questioning.

Although he has more than 40% of the three-point catch rate in a small sample game, this sample data is not enough after all. Judging from the game and training videos, his overall shooting speed is still relatively slow, which is quite unfavorable for his offense development without the ball.

Dylan Harper's early career training mainly came from his father Ron Harper and his father's friend Gary Payton. They were both players from the 1990s and were good at using two-stage shooting.

This characteristic is also reflected in Dylan Harper. His shooting movements have two obvious pauses. At the moment of receiving the ball, the last slightly delayed action before the shot. Although he has been trying hard to adjust the current popular shooting style over the past year, judging from the recent videos, long-term habit changes will take time to slowly change.

For Dylan Harper's shooting, it's OK when there are big opens, and he can only complete the shooting action with enough time. However, considering that the NBA outside defender's quicker fix-up and better players' response, the shooting problem may be more likely to be amplified on the NBA stage.

Compared with shooting, Dylan Harper's performance in the breakthrough ending was even better. He had excellent footsteps and body confrontation, and was good at using his body advantages to suppress his opponents, creating shooting space, and then completing the ending stably. The ending methods are also rich enough, and he can complete the shooting with both hands. He has certain stability in throwing, leaning back, turning over shooting and other actions. This is also the main reason why he can maintain a high shooting percentage this year in college.

can not only hold the ball, pick-and-roll, but also break through singles by yourself, and its organizational ability is above the qualified level. This is Dylan Harper's biggest advantage on the offensive end, but considering the relatively average dynamic and static physical fitness, it will still affect his finishing level at a higher level. If he wants to maintain data efficiency on the NBA stage, improving the threat of the outside is his must.

As his childhood master, Gary Payton was known for his name as "gloves". Single defense was his best advantage. It was once rumored that he had the big lock on the outside line that Jason Kidd was so defensive that he had cried, and these concepts and skills were passed on to Dylan Harper without reservation. Although his physical fitness is not the best, his single defense ability is extremely strong. Coupled with his excellent confrontational performance, Dylan Harper's advantage is still quite obvious when facing most small defenders.

In addition, Dylan Harper's ability to achieve excellent results in high school and college is also largely based on his better technical completion and ball quotient than players in the same period. Even if the upper limit is not necessarily high, the dynamic and static physical fitness is only medium to the upper level, especially the projection part, which lacks the inherent soft feel and needs to be adjusted.

Referring to previous cases, the physical strength of Amen Thompson can only enter the league with the fourth pick. In today's draft year, if you don't consider the position, it will be difficult for Dylan Harper to enter the second pick in most people's hearts, and it will be difficult to enter the top three picks..

Referring to past cases, it seems that he saw a defender player who is very similar to Dylan Harper. The second pick in 2015 Tangiero Russell. The defender won the second pick that year, but his career development in the league was far from expected.

When Russell graduated from Connie Digu University, he averaged 19.3 points, 5.7 assists and 5 rebounds per game. Unfortunately, his physical talent conditions are relatively average. Even if he entered the league with the second-tier show, he has now become a homeless player at the peak of 29 years old.

Of course, the young Dylan Hardy still has the opportunity to play a more stable career than Russell, but based on his unstable projection ability and physical fitness conditions, it is still quite difficult for him to become a star player. The purpose is to hope that after entering the league, he can slowly repair his technical shortcomings and find his suitable position. This is his goal.