Winning the NBA Rookie of the Year award was an preliminary objective for San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper this season. So was successful video games — which was really the highest objective for Harper, who may be enjoying deep into the playoffs whereas different heralded rookies are watching at house.
“That’s every kid’s dream, to play on the big stages,” Harper, 20, advised Andscape lately. “I might come off the bench, but in a month or so, I will be playing in the playoffs. Not many rookies can say that they can do that at a high level and play meaningful minutes.”
The odds broke in the Spurs’ favor in final yr’s NBA draft lottery, after they obtained the No. 2 total choose after having a 26.3% probability of touchdown anyplace in the highest 4. After the Dallas Mavericks took Cooper Flagg first total, San Antonio chosen Harper — regardless of already having a beginning backcourt of two-time NBA All-Star De’Aaron Fox and 2025 Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle.
With no room in the beginning lineup, Harper has emerged as a standout reserve for the Spurs in his rookie marketing campaign, averaging 11.5 factors (on 49.8% capturing), 3.9 assists, and three.4 rebounds in 22.3 minutes per recreation coming into tonight towards the Golden State Warriors (ESPN, 10 p.m. ET).
But on the NBA.com Rookie Ladder, Harper was listed fourth behind Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel, Flagg and Philadelphia 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe, all of whom are averaging at the least 16 factors per recreation whereas beginning and rating close to the highest of their respective groups in minutes performed. Meanwhile, Harper entered Tuesday ninth amongst NBA rookies in scoring and nineteenth in minutes per recreation.
Harper admitted that coming off the bench for the primary time in his life this yr was initially an adjustment.
“It was hard in the beginning just trying to find my role, just trying to pick spots, things like that,” Harper stated. “But as the season kept going on, the second group got to come in with me — KJ [Keldon Johnson], Luke [Kornet] — we kind of have our own little group and we get to go and play basketball. So, it’s definitely a challenge and different. But what’s so scary is that the first lineup is so good and the second lineup is just as good.”
Grant Burke/NBAE through Getty Images
There is one massive distinction between Harper and the opposite stellar rookies: He has a probability to not solely win in the NBA playoffs however compete for a championship.
Led by MVP candidate Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs entered Tuesday with the second-best document in the league, behind the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. The Spurs are competing with Oklahoma City for the highest playoff seed in the Western Conference, and the Thunder entered Tuesday with the fourth-toughest remaining schedule, whereas the Spurs’ ranks 14th.
So, whereas Harper and the Spurs have their sights set on successful the franchise’s sixth NBA title, Knueppel and the Hornets will be in the play-in match, Flagg and the Mavs received’t be in the postseason, and Edgecombe and the injury-riddled Sixers might need to qualify for the playoffs by the play-in match.
“Even though I don’t get the volume or the minutes [the aforementioned rookies] get, I’m playing meaningful basketball,” Harper stated. “Every day in every game I get in, we’re playing for something. We’re playing to win. We’re playing for the next big thing. It’s fun because when we [rookies] match up against each other, we get to see, and it’s time to compete. I love to compete. So, that’s a great thing about this league, too, is that you see everyone.”
What additionally makes successful extra satisfying for Harper is that simply a season in the past, shedding was the norm for him.
Rutgers University had excessive hopes for the 2024-25 season with Harper and fellow five-star freshman Ace Bailey, who’s now with the Utah Jazz. Both have been 2024 McDonald’s All-Americans whom ESPN ranked in the top 5 of the 2024 SCNext 100. The Scarlet Knights, nonetheless, completed the season 15-17 and didn’t make the NCAA match.
Those struggles made Harper really feel he needed to show himself as a winner as soon as he joined the Spurs.
“It’s hard to watch the NCAA tournament now because it’s something I didn’t get to do,” Harper stated. “It was form of blessing in disguise for me. It form of opened my eyes. It was good for me. I by no means need to lose. But the shedding facet and never exceeding expectations was a good factor for me as a result of it form of stored me grounded and stored me level-headed. So, going into my NBA profession was extra of like, ‘All right, I have to prove that I’m a winner now.’ And we acquired [more than 50] wins, so I’ve carried out a fairly good job of that.
“But losing last [season] taught me a lot of lessons. You got to show up every day regardless of what happened yesterday. You got to show up to practice. It made me appreciate the little things a little more. It’s a dream come true. I always tell people, ‘It’s a flip. Usually, you win in college and you get to the pros and the first few years the team is not winning.’ But for me, I lost in college. I’m winning now. I can’t ask to be in any [better] position.”
Issac Baldizon/NBAE through Getty Images
It didn’t take lengthy for the Spurs to know they’d a gifted rookie in Harper.
The 6-foot-5 Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, native averaged 14.4 factors, 4.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 25.8 minutes in the primary 5 video games of the season. He was named the NBA Western Conference Rookie of the Month for February, when he averaged 12.5 factors, 4.9 assists, and three.9 rebounds and shot 55.4% from the sector, serving to the Spurs to an 11-0 month.
Harper has continued to develop, placing up 13.1 factors on 57.3% capturing from the sector, dishing 4.2 assists and hauling in 3.5 rebounds per recreation in 19 contests because the All-Star break.
Wembanyama stated he had religion in Harper “very quickly.”
“It’s rare to be a really good shooter as a rookie, first of all,” Wembanyama stated. “And I know it’s rare to have this [talent] as an NBA player at all. And very, very rapidly I had faith in him. It’s obvious, right?”
Joining a nice workforce means Harper has additionally prevented the strain and a spotlight that often comes with being chosen excessive in the draft. Moreover, he had the posh of a veteran in Fox taking him underneath his wing. Harper stated he’s realized a lot from watching the habits of his extra skilled teammates and even makes use of the identical private chef as Spurs guard Devin Vassell.
“I have great vets around me who help, like Fox,” Harper stated. “We can sit down and talk about anything. On the basketball side, [Fox said], ‘I’m not trying to stunt your growth. I understand what it’s like to be young coming into this league. I’m going to help you as much as I can.’ Having people in my corner like that is special to me.”
Harper’s father, Ron Harper Sr., averaged a career-high 22.9 factors per recreation as a rookie with the Cleveland Cavaliers throughout the 1986-87 season, however he completed second in the NBA Rookie of the Year balloting to Indiana Pacers ahead Chuck Person. It all labored out for Harper Sr., who received 5 NBA championships in his 15-year profession.
An appreciative Dylan Harper hopes to comply with in his father’s championship footsteps and ship the Spurs a sixth NBA title.
“I’m grateful that the Spurs picked me,” Dylan Harper stated. “And I’m grateful that it would be in a position like this.”
