Richmond's best player, leading scorer, rebounder and shotblocker this season has been upcoming draft pick Justin Harper, who does a fine impression of a lesser JaJuan Johnson. Like Johnson, Harper is an athletic face-up power forward, whose offensive game is built around his jumpshot. He can hit this shot from post-up situations while turning over either shoulder, or in catch-and-shoot situations, and already has more range than Johnson. He has similar concerns to Johnson with regards to his lack of strength and toughess, his poor defensive rebounder numbers, and his rather pedestrian dribble-drive game, but the comparison I'm forcing on you is nonetheless valid. Where he trails Johnson, other than being slightly smaller and slightly less athletic, is in the lack of counter moves.
Pick 32: Cleveland re-appear and take Justin Harper, a stretch power forward who would have made more sense as Chicago's pick. They later trade him to Orlando in exchange for two future second round picks, where he will backup Brandon Bass, who will (or should) back up Ryan Anderson. Two second rounders for a third stringer is a little ambitious, but Harper was the right pick for this slot.
Jay Bilas lauds Harper's "touch" and "feel," which is funny if you're five. Stu Scott announces that Harper used to play the saxophone in a marching band, but gave it up when he outgrew the band's uniform. How on earth do you have a saxophone in a marching band?
Note: Non-US teams that the player
has played for are, unless stated otherwise, from the top division in
that nation. If league or division name is expressly stated, it's not
the top division. The only exceptions to this are the rare occasions where
no one league is said to be above the other, such as with the JBL/BJ League
split inJapan.
In the event where more than one agent is listed, this is because the
player has more than one agent. This is rather commonplace - a lot of
times, a player will sign with a big agency, and they will have both primary
and secondary agents from within that agency to handle their affairs.
(Where that happens, the primary agent is listed first.) Also, foreign
players tend to have both American and domestic agents. Where the details
of such are known, they are listed.
An Unnecessarily Exhaustive Guide To The 2010/11 NCAA Tournament, Part 1: Southwestern Region
