UNC Basketball: Scouting report of Tar Heel guard Anthony Harris

Driving & Tunnel Vision

No one can possibly watch Anthony Harris play basketball and come away with the conclusion that he doesn’t play with intensity or passion. Such a conclusion would be patently and brazenly false.

There is no question that Harris possesses a motor that is always running hot, which manifests itself on the court in the form of defensive hustle plays and a fearless attacking mindset on offense.

With his speed and quickness, Harris is a prime leak-out candidate in transition and has shown that he’s capable of pushing the ball baseline to baseline off of a grab-and-go. He’s flashed a slight change-of-pace hesitation move, both when navigating the pick-and-roll and pushing the ball at a full sprint (seen at the 0:39 mark below), which could prove to be a useful weapon if he manages to tighten his handle. His burst also helps him attack defenders when he receives a pass on the move, which makes him a solid threat as a cutter, too.

The quickness he brings in the backcourt should make Harris a viable transition scorer and playmaker under Roy Williams, but there are serious red flags at this juncture that must be addressed before he can routinely be relied on in the regular rotation. Williams isn’t opposed to yanking guards (or anyone, for that matter) for mental errors and ineffective guard play, and Harris has shown too many times at lower levels that he can leave coaches shaking their heads due to recklessness on offense.

Simply put, Harris struggles mightily as a driver and transition decision-maker. We have seen the positive outcomes that he’s capable of producing — leak-out dunks and layups, crafty hop-step finishes, and timely kickouts to shooters — but those don’t show the full picture.

Part of his struggles are physical. As has been pondered in previous sections, it seems as if Harris’s core strength isn’t where it should be. We’ve seen him struggle shooting on the move and struggle with floaters, and in regards to at-the-rim finishing, he struggles significantly when it comes to finishing through contact. He’s capable of hitting tough shots at the rim due to his touch, but he needs to add strength so that he doesn’t contort his body wildly when met at the rim by a forward or center. He’s not an above-the-rim leaper, so it’s imperative that he gains strength, so that he’s not only relying on touch at the basket.

Not being strong enough as a high school athlete isn’t really a concern; it’s merely a weakness at this point and is something that a top-shelf weight training program such as UNC’s can fix over time. Plenty of players make physical leaps once they receive adequate weight training in college, so I’m not worried. Improvement should be expected, to some degree anyway. He’ll be fine.

But those physical limitations don’t excuse the questionable — and, at times, outright awful — decision-making that he exhibits as a driver. Understanding one’s own limitations are vital to a player’s success, and that’s something that Harris needs to develop. All of his tools are nice, but he must figure out how to properly control them without hurting himself or his teammates.

Specifically, Harris suffers from severe bouts of tunnel vision, with far too many instances of reckless drives that end in blocked shots, horrific misses, or missed opportunities to hit open teammates. He’s charged into stationary defenders (0:00), jumped into players hoping for friendly whistles (which he got at 0:09, but the sentiment stands), attempted floaters and euro-steps in ridiculously tight spaces, and has attacked swarms of defenders — even if the numbers weren’t on his side — without even looking to pass out (0:37 and 0:45).

His shot selection can be downright infuriating at times, which is upsetting considering the other positives that he brings to the floor. The shot selection and limited floor vision, along with his inconsistent off-ball defense, do make me wonder whether his feel for the game and basketball IQ are limited, but I simply haven’t seen a large enough sample to really give a legitimate opinion on that. (If all EYBL games were accessible online, then things would be different, for example.)

He has gotten better at picking and choosing times to score and times to defer to teammates between his junior and senior seasons, and his role is generally that off an off-ball shooting threat with minimal on-ball responsibilities. There is hope that, as he matures, he irons out his decision-making and cuts out these hardheaded plays. But, nonetheless, it’s something that he must work on.