NBA Comparison: Ron Harper Jr./Talen Horton-Tucker

Strengths: Skilled, experienced wing with the ability to create offense for himself and others off the dribble … Sneaky length with a near 7-foot wingspan and a plus+ 6 inch wingspan to height differential (6-11 to 6-4.5 barefoot) … Masterful floor game … A highly skilled player with the ability to shoot, pass and handle … Sets up the drive well with a surprising first step and gets opponents on his hip well and then seals them on drives … Handles the ball on a string and toyed with the competition in the Big Sky with his high skill set offensively … Does a good job of creating space for his shot with head fakes and hesitation moves, and his long arms help to get shots over defenders on fadaway and step back jump shoots … Extremely prolific numbers with 20 and 10 scoring and rebounding average … At 235 lbs, he loves to play bully ball and knows how to use his thick frame and big posterior to create space … Likes to drive and run into opponents and let the bowling pins fall, creating fouls by initiating contact … A good shooter. Shot over 80% for his career in college. Beautiful looking stroke on the pull up … Shows a great feel for the game … Excellent passer at 5.2 per game, showing great vision off the dribble … very creative passer with great vision. Always seems to make the right read and delivers passes on a dime, creating easy buckets for teammates … 6-11 wingspan allowed him to get a lot of dunks off steals despite much lift … Shows good use of finishing with either hand … Four years of college experience and showed steady improvement every year … Averaged over 10 boards per game over his last 3 seasons, showing the determination and toughness he plays with …

Weaknesses: Does not pass the eye test as an NBA player with a round “stocky” body and under the rim athleticism a la Ron Harper Jr … The question must be asked whether his productivity and efficiency would have been nearly the same in a Power 5 conference … A below the rim athlete … Lacks speed and it hurts him in the open floor as he lacks much of a burst … Uncertain how effective he can be without the luxury of dominating the ball at the next level … Despite being an 80% FT shooter, his three point shooting never seemed to become a big strength 32% as a senior and for his college career … As the primary ball handler at Weber State, he was usually the one setting up others for shots, so it may have come at the expense of three point efficiency … Has a quick first step, considering his speed, however he’s extremely slow for a wing and will struggle both defending and creating offense with the same efficiency due to his athletic limitations … Loves to find teammates running the pick and roll or attacking the rim and then stopping and finding a cutting teammate … At times gets caught up over dribbling the ball, and a little too much East / West action … Played most of his career againt low level competition, so he’ll have a bigger adjustment with regard to NBA speed and athleticism … Will need to work on conditioning and losing 10-15 lbs and possibly adding some speed and mobility … Despite being a Junior, already 22 and a half years of age …

Outlook: One of the most exciting “Non-athletes” in college ball with his amazing ability to overcome the athletic deficiencies with his advanced floor game … Has an old school, rec-league skill set, with all the tricks in the book and incredible anticipation and feel for the game … Jones absolutely destroyed the Big Sky Conference playing in Ogden, Utah for the Weber State … At 235 lbs, the question is how much success he can have stepping up the level of athleticism … His 6-11 wingspan will help him to overcome some of the speed and athleticism issues, but questions remain about how well his game will “translate” … Registered a 33.5 inch vertical, which was surprisingly higher than how he plays …

Notes: Measured 6′ 4.50” barefoot, 8′ 4.50” standing reach, 236.8 lbs, 6′ 11.00” wingspan, 26.5 standing vert, 33.5 max vert at the 2024 NBA Draft Combine … Native of Colombia, South Carolina … Nicknamed Mr. Do it All … Led Weber State in most major statistical categories, including points, rebounds, and assists …

Aran Smith 6/17/24