Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Target? If No Tyran Stokes, Could Kansas Turn to Wake Forest Transfer Juke Harris?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Best players in the transfer portal. Potential All-American next season is Duke Harris. And if Kansas isn't able to get Tyron Stokes, does it make sense to pull some of the money that way? You are Locked-on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on, Derek Johnson here with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks. And on today's episode, we're going to be breaking down Duke Harris. Deep dive into his game as one of the top portal target.

Starting point is 00:00:34 gets out there for everyone. We'll get to his potential fit with KU. Is it riding on the idea that if Tyron Stokes doesn't pick Kansas, maybe have a little extra funds to go make a move like this, we'll get to his scouting report and more. So according to Shea Wilde Bohr from, I guess now on three,

Starting point is 00:00:52 Jayhawks Lant and Michael Swain with 247 sports. Sounds like KU kicked the tires, but not much was progressed here, right? And so you can read into that one of two ways. you can read into that, the scenario of there's just not mutual interest there. There's also the scenario where they reached out and heard about what the number would be. I'd imagine whoever gets true caris is going to be paying a pretty hefty bill for whoever brings him aboard. Maybe that didn't line up with what KU wanted to do.

Starting point is 00:01:21 Or could it be that not much has progressed and it was just initial contact, because KU wanted to reach out to see, hey, we're kind of waiting to see what happens here, a Tyrant Stokes who could come in and be our starting wing and be kind of our go-to option on the offensive end. But if he ends up picking Kentucky or Oregon, would you be interested in this is the amount of money we're going to pay Tyron Stokes? Would you be interested in taking this amount of money to come here? And he goes, you know what? That does sound kind of interesting. And there's been some rumors about that he could go to Michigan or one of these other schools. But the fact that at least as I'm recording right now, he hasn't officially committed yet does

Starting point is 00:01:56 make me wonder, is he waiting on, you know, maybe a couple moves, maybe a move like Stokes to see, hey, what else is out there? Could it bid up my number or could I potentially make that move? So it's one there, yeah, we haven't seen a ton of connections, but if KU does not land Stokes, and in the ideal world, Kansas does land Tyron Stokes, right? But in the non-ideal world where they don't, could this be an option to go to? Well, Harris is a really good player, 6'7, 200-pound, 200-pound wing, who is set to be a junior in the 2026 to 2027 season. He was a four-star prospect out of high school.

Starting point is 00:02:28 in Wake Forest played 31 games, mostly off the bench as a true freshman, tad over six points per game. And then he exploded this year, went from that to being the ACC's most improved player this year, going up to 21.4 points per game, six and a half rebounds per game, 1.3 steals per game. He shot 44% from the floor, 33% from 3 and 78% at the foul line. He was also named to the all-ACC second team. He had 12 games this season with 25 or more points.

Starting point is 00:03:00 He had three games this season with 30 or more points, and his season high came with 38 against Boston College. And then you look at the postseason he played in between the ACC tournament and the NIT. He averaged 19 and a half points per game with five rebounds per game. But overall, in conference play, his effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentages were basically in line with his season long numbers. and for his career, 21 games played against Ken Palm top 50 opponents. He's shooting 56% on twos, 33% on threes, and he did have a 23-point game against Duke going 5 of 9 from 3.

Starting point is 00:03:39 So he performed, you know, just fine against the better competition. The metric's good, 94th percentile in RAPM with an above-average defensive split and a 98th percentile split on the offensive end of the floor. He was in the 89th percentile in windchairs per 40 with, again, kind of similar splits, below average, actually defensively there, but a really good number on the offensive end. 93rd percentile in P.R, kind of a measurement of his efficiency, and then a 98th percentile in wins above replacement player. And this one speaks to, you know, making a big impact as well. Even though Wake Forest wasn't a great team this year, when he was on the floor, Wake Forest was about 13 points better per one of 100 possessions offensively versus when he was off the floor. Now, they were about three points worse.

Starting point is 00:04:29 Defensively, wasn't given much back on the defense van, but still overall, his on-off net rating was plus 9.7. That is a very solid number to be at and making an impact, even though the team didn't have, you know, great performance necessarily. But on three has him as a top five transfer that is available. 24-7 sports has him in the top 10. The athletic has him at number two. Evan Miyakaa has him in the top 30.

Starting point is 00:04:53 overall, this is one of the best, you know, transfer portal players that is out there. It's probably going to be one of the most expensive transfer portal additions for somebody who is out there as well. Again, there were early rumors connecting Michigan in some places. Like if Kentucky misses on Stokes, do they throw the bag at them? If Kansas misses on Stokes, do they throw the bag at them, Oregon? You know, same like, it's going to be a high dollar, I guess, right?

Starting point is 00:05:18 But regardless, this is a really productive basketball player who, you know, anybody who gets is going to feel like they're getting an all-conference level edition right in to the team. So let's break his game down more with his scouting important strengths and weaknesses next. This episode of the show is brought to you by Indeed, workplace chaos, deadlines stacking up, inbox overflowing, and the one position you have to fill is still sitting open. When the pressure's on, you need the right hire. This is a job for indeed sponsor jobs, helping you reach the people who actually fit what you're

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Starting point is 00:06:42 Let's start with the strengths. He gets up a lot of threes. He was in the 96th percentile in three point attempts per 40 minutes. So if you want Kansas to have more shooting, you know, he's about an average three point shooter in terms of efficiency. but the high volume can help an offense to open up spacing. And keep in mind, I found this interesting as a note from Adam Finkelstein of 24-7 sports and CBS sports. He mentioned this.

Starting point is 00:07:07 He said he was under 30% from three when he was guarded or shooting off the dribble. But he knocked down 43% of his unguarded catch and shoot threes, meaning he has gravity spotting up or on short movement three. So what that tells you is he didn't have enough good enough teammates around him. and he ended up having to take, you know, more contested shots and off the dribble tough threes. If you get him around some good players, which ideally would be the idea, if you bring him into Kansas, is he going to get more open threes and the percentage goes up? He's clearly comfortable taking a lot of them and taking them in different situations.

Starting point is 00:07:40 I will say to dip into the weaknesses a little bit here, it does feel like a lot of his shots do end up coming contested. I don't know how much that's going to change, even with better teammates around him, probably a little bit. But we'll get into that a little bit later. Other strengths here for Ju-Karris. He shot 59% on layups. It's not a number that is like otherworldly, but it's a good number. Like, I don't know, you honestly almost want a little bit better since he's 6'7. But again, it's a solid mark for a wing.

Starting point is 00:08:10 He's strong in the floater area, just in general, very good on line drives. And when he goes to the rim, he goes very aggressively where he is ready to attack and deal with the contact. I mean, overall, he was in the 97th percentile in efficiency on rim attacks. Rim attacks are defined as basically you attack the rim. It can include a floater. It can include a pull-up. It can include a drive to a layup. So he really has the ability to make his own shot and get that done off the bounce attacking the rim, right? He also scores very well in transition. He's a lengthy six-seven wing. You get him out there. He's going to cause issues for the opposing defense. One of the other things I found interesting for a player who is such high.

Starting point is 00:08:51 high usage and takes a lot of shots. He's not somebody who turns the ball over much. And that is a nice kind of mix to have to keep you on the more efficient end, despite being a higher usage guy, 93rd percentile in turnover rate, 75th percentile in assist to turnover rate. And then this also helps the efficiency. He gets to the free throw line. He has a solid free throw attempt rate.

Starting point is 00:09:11 And then he converts them at a very high percentage with a strong free throw percentage. And the other thing I like about his game is that he doesn't necessarily just like spam one play style over and over again. I think you just as well at a lot of different things. And that can make you a little more difficult to defend because you put in the scouting report, hey, you know, just stop him from doing this. Well, it's like, okay, he'll counter with this or he'll counter with that or he'll do more of this, that game, right?

Starting point is 00:09:37 Depending on the style of what your defense is going to have. Now, what are the weaknesses here for Duke Harris? Because this sounds like a lot of good in what we've talked about. I do think one of them, a little bit of a question on the defensive end, he doesn't get blocks. He gets steals if you compare him to forwards, which he's listed as at CBB Analytics, but if you compare him more to guards, he doesn't get very many steals. And for being a six, seven, lengthy wing, you would want him to get both of those things, right? He also has bad defensive metrics from a team standpoint. I think when you watch some of him, he can fall asleep

Starting point is 00:10:11 at times off ball on the defensive end. I don't think he's a horrible defender. And he does give you rebounding on that end, which is part of the defense side. He does have length. So, like, there's stuff to work with there. I just, you can't view defense as a strength, I guess, right? He's also not the most agile or shiftyest player in the world. I wouldn't say he has, like, the tightest dribble. A lot of his shots is what I was mentioning earlier, come with a defender contesting it.

Starting point is 00:10:37 You know, it's almost like, it's almost like a receiver in football. You have your receivers who are really good separating before the catch point, separating because they're elite route runners or they're really shifty or they know how to how to play the game so to speak. And then you have your other receivers who are not good at getting separation, but they win a ton of possession catches. And that's almost how I would define his game. If you go and watch some of the highlights,

Starting point is 00:11:05 you'll notice a lot of the shots he's making are with a guy right there or him just shooting over the guy because he is six, seven and is able to do that. And he clearly does it at a very high level. but he's I don't know like I wouldn't describe him as I guess from a a length perspective and a running straight forward perspective like in a straight line I think he's a pretty good athlete but from a a shiftingness perspective from an ability to to shed off defenders because you're so agile or you have great ball dribble or ball control I wouldn't define him that way. He's also he's not he's not like he's not not efficient if that makes sense but he's not efficient either. Does that make sense? He's just kind of like average from an efficiency standpoint. Now, if you view it from a standpoint of he was average on efficiency but high volume, if you pair that down just a little bit, can the efficiency go up and a little bit lower volume,

Starting point is 00:11:57 but still high volume at the same point of time? Maybe he was also below average on dribble jumpers. So I don't think that this is the like, I don't know, it's not like I went into this looking at the stats going, is this dude just going to be like an All-American next year? And I'm not to that point. I am to the point where I'm like, okay, wherever he goes, he'll probably be an all-conference pick. But I don't know that I put him as like a shoe in to be an All-American next year either. So what is the overall, you know, fit here? What would be the take situation for KU?

Starting point is 00:12:26 We'll get to all that next. Thanks to joining us on Locked on Jayhawks and breaking down Duke Harris here. This is obviously a very high usage player, 98th percentile usage, which I've dinged some other guards, guys like Alex Wilkins and whatnot. But in my eyes, if you were going for Duke Harris, you're going for him. him to be your leading score. You're going for him to be your leading initiator on offense. So I think that is fine. He can play some off ball. He was in the 61st percentile as a perimeter sniper. He was in a 90th percentile in perimeter cuts. So at least there is some stuff there to make you think he can do that when he has to. But this is obviously a take if you can afford it. Realistically for Kansas,

Starting point is 00:13:08 the only way you are affording this move is if you don't get Tyron Stokes. Right. I mean, for all we know, like a big money donor for KU. no, we're making this happen. You know what I mean? And you get both guys. And that'd be swell and that'd be cool and, you know, awesome if they were able to make that happen. Everybody would love that, but you cares, right? But realistically,

Starting point is 00:13:29 it probably comes down. And there's also a conversation to be had if the donor did give you an extra $5 million to play with to say, hey, I don't just want Stokes. I want another star. I think Kansas would probably in that situation to be better off using that extra money to get a center to pair of Stokes than they would have Duke Harris next to Stokes. but I digress. To me, this more so comes down

Starting point is 00:13:49 what happens with Tyrant Stokes, right? I would prefer Tyrant Stokes over Duke Harris. I know there's a more proven entity here with Harris. It also is not proven on a winning team. I think when you look at it, Stokes raises your ceiling. You want to be a final four team. You want to be a national championship team. I think Harris raises your floor more,

Starting point is 00:14:07 but I think the ceiling gets raised more with Tyrant Sox. I like the ability of Stokes to be kind of a passer. And I like the defense. side and the athleticism sealing a little bit more with Stokes. There's some other things you could prefer with Harris, and I would totally understand that. But I guess that's where I'm at, that you still go all in for Tyrant Stokes. If you don't get him, you start to look, who are some of the guys you would pivot to? Who are some of the guys that you would say, I'm going to throw all the money I threw at Stokes

Starting point is 00:14:36 at this guy to try to get him to come to KU? I think Duke Harris would be one of those. I think Milan-Momchilovich at Iowa State would be one of those. I mean, for me, Alan Graves would be one. of those guys, right? So there's some guys that are there. And I don't know where I'd have Harris in relation to those. Off the top of my head, I would prefer graves over Harris. I haven't done a Milan Mom Chilovich deep dive off the top of my head. I'd probably have Mom Chilovich ahead of Harris, though, too. But, you know, again, I'd prefer Stokes. But if you wind up at the end of this

Starting point is 00:15:05 with Duke Harris, you're going to still feel pretty good about that too. So not a player that I think KU would be in the market for unless they don't get Tyrant Stokes, which sucks, because that would be bad news, but would be a good turning point if you have to go there. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. Make sure to catch all of our episodes, all of our deep dive episodes, and I'll have plenty more coming for you right here on L.O.J.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Jayhawks Portal Target? If No Tyran Stokes, Could Kansas Turn to Wake Forest Transfer Juke Harris?

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