Can he dunk? Elevation? Haven’t watched clips.
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Dunks in warm ups at least
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He’s a forearm dunker
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Seriously or was this a joke?
Actually serious … dude is a serious athlete
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Nice. I didn’t know that. That plus a little extra height means for the first time in 5 years the team doesn’t need to scheme around spending 35 minutes/game defensively with a player the average HS player could just shoot over.
Kihei brought a lot of other things to the table, but defensively it’s the end of an era.
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And also my hope is that Harris will not be playing 35 minutes a game
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Some extra juice + height from Harris and height from Bond, Dunn, Traudt over the current lineup will be really nice for the defense next year
I know talking about height seems like an oversimplification but I also always understood that the pack line was about packing the lane and making it hard to get the ball inside forcing contested jumpers.
It is much easier to clog inside when you take up some more space and those contested jumpers are harder when you can get a better contest
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If Reece leaves he certainly will play that much. Even if Reece returns, you know how Tony loves to lean on his PGs.
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Ugh
Kihei was at the top of Tony Bennett’s best defense ever. It ain’t like he’s an anchor on defense. Is his size an issue at times? Sure, but it has been much much more about the post the last three years
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Seems like Harris could be a Kihei type in your face defender but with a little more height to play with and better athleticism. Could be a major asset for us on that end especially with two potential elite defenders in Dunn and Bond.
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Keep in mind Kihei is an exceptional defender for his size. Dante Harris could be a very good defender and still only just as effective as Kihei, even with the 3-4 inch height advantage.
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From the limited highlights I saw of Harris it looked like he was picking up full court quite often, and his steal rate was actually higher last year than Kihei’s is this year so that’s something to potentially look forward to.
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Is it unreasonable to expect Harris to be ‘pre-this year Kihei’ +? What I mean by that is I don’t expect him to play a clean game like Kihei has this year. But could he keep his turnovers to where Kihei was in 20-21 and last year? And be a more dynamic scorer while doing so? Could be a pretty useful player if so. Especially if he’s not the only PG option
Wasn’t there a story floating around before the 2018-19 season started, that Ty got so frustrated with Kihei’s “peskiness” on defense in practice, that he threw a ball at him?
Urban legend or not, that’s what we’re not sure about going from Kihei to Harris. Will Harris play with the same intensity level that will drive his opponent crazy over 40 minutes? Hopefully, but it’s one of those intangibles that can’t be measured like height, weight or speed.
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Think that’ll be partially dependent on if Reece is back or not. If Harris has to pick guys up full court while also running our offense on the other end as the lead ball handler for 30-35 minutes a game I feel like that’s probably too much to ask from him in his first full season here. In an ideal scenario I’d like him to spell Reece as a backup next year and give us around 20 mpg of intense defense along with hard straight line drives to the paint off ball screens. Then step into a starter role in 2024 with a first year PG coming off the bench.
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Harris has already played college basketball. I dont think asking anything of him will be too much. If he is legit, that is
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Dante and Elijah will make an interesting pairing in the backcourt. Have we ever had that much speed and athleticism together?
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