In the Spotlight: Paul Harris

Paul Harris
Position: Small Forward

Ht: 6-5, Wt: 230

Hometown: Niagara Falls, NY

College: Syracuse

Class: Junior

Age: 10/15/86

Strengths

• Strong build… Well defined, very muscular physique
• Impressive athlete with good combination of power, length and explosion.
• Great rebounder for his size – attacks the glass. Paul doesn’t wait for the ball to come down, he goes and gets it. He gets himself in good position and explodes to the highest point.
• Tenacious man to man defender. He plays very physical, in your face, on the ball defense. He has good lateral quickness and moves his feet well.
• Superb team defender – Rotates well and gets his body in position to help stop penetration. He gives up his body and will take the contact.
• Plays with high energy – A competitor who wants to win and gives maximum effort every night.
• Very active on both ends of the court. Offensively, he’s a slasher that will get scrappy buckets – (put backs off glass, cuts in offense)… Moves well off the ball. Defensively, he’s always moving, talking, banging.
• Plays well when he gets out in transition, filling the wing and finishing on the break.

Weaknesses

• Offensively, Paul’s game is 12 feet and in.
• Needs to improve his jump shot. He has a high release point, doesn’t get enough ark and the bottom line is that he can’t consistently hit a jump shot.
• He’s 6’5 but his skills are of someone 6’9, which will limit him at the next level.
• Struggles creating off the dribble – Needs to expand his game to include beating his man off the dribble and creating scoring opportunities for himself and teammates.

Overall

If there’s a loose ball and 10 guys go after it and Paul Harris is one of those 10, he’s coming out with the ball. That epitomizes his game. He’s tenacious, he’s aggressive, he’s a competitor, and he’s willing to give himself up to get the ‘W’.

His greatest strength is his ability to defend. Although Syracuse primarily plays zone, when they do go man, Harris takes on the challenge of guarding the opposing team’s best player. He’s able to use his quickness, length and strength to keep his man in front of him. He also has great defensive instincts and understands how to play team defense. He has all the physical attributes to play defense at the NBA level.

Offensively, is where Harris is limited. At 6’5, he plays like a power forward, and lacks the skills of a shooting guard / small forward, which he’ll need at the NBA level. The primary issue is his inability to shoot with consistency. His jumper has been a work in progress since Paul entered college 3 years ago and it still is nowhere near an NBA level.

Overall, Paul does so many things on the court that make him valuable and make him a winner. The problem is that at 6’5 he is going to need to play the 2 in the NBA and with some major holes in his offensive repertoire, he’s not going to be able to stick on a roster. He’s worth a look in the late 2nd round, with hope that he could develop into a lock down defender (ala Bruce Bowen), but unless he can hit the jumper, there wont be an NBA future for him.