To help readers get to know top NBA draft prospects, Insider offers a 360-degree look at many of them in a concise and thorough scouting report featuring three expert perspectives: Kevin Pelton (analytics), Fran Fraschilla (scouting) and Chad Ford (NBA front offices). Here's a look at Aaron Harrison.
WARP projection: 0.1 (67th among players in top 100)
Comparables: Terrico White (98.0), Doron Lamb (96.1), Tim Hardaway Jr. (94.5), Daequan Cook (94.0)
Strengths: TO%, PF%
Weaknesses: Usage, 2P%, Rebound%, Assist%
The analytics perspective
While his brother was the more hyped prospect entering college, Aaron Harrison was somewhat more productive at Kentucky, giving him an easier path to contributing in the NBA. Harrison wasn't a great outside shooter at the college level, making just 31.6 percent of his 3-pointers as a sophomore, but his combination of high-volume shooting and a solid free throw percentage (78.7 percent) suggest he can develop into a capable NBA 3-point shooter.
Harrison probably will need to be a knockdown shooter to stick, because the rest of his game is substandard. He was a poor rebounder and distributor for a shooting guard, and while his 2-point percentages were much better than his brother's (he never had the same trouble finishing), they were still below average among shooting guards.
-- Kevin Pelton
The scouting perspective
After much hype coming in, Harrison had a solid, if not spectacular, two seasons at Kentucky. He'll long be remembered in Lexington for the many clutch shots he hit for the Wildcats, including the three-pointer that put his team into last season's NCAA championship game.
Unfortunately, NBA people are not sentimental, so the 6-foot-6 shooting guard will enter the draft with many questions surrounding him.
The first question: Is he a good enough shooter? Harrison shot 32 percent from behind the arc this season and 35 percent inside the arc on 2-point jump shots. Not only is this projected to be below average, it is also the biggest part of his game, as 80 percent of his attempts were jump shots. To be fair, he did made 78 percent of his free throws.
His athleticism is also a question mark. Harrison is not an explosive athlete and finished only 54 percent of his shots at the rim. And his ratio of free throw attempts to field goal attempts was a paltry 27 percent this season.
Harrison was an average defender who was actually hurt by the fact that Kentucky switched so much. While it was an effective strategy, because the Wildcats were one of the elite defensive teams of the modern college basketball era, it didn't give Harrison the chance to show that he could be a defensive stopper.
Finally, both Aaron and Andrew Harrison came to Kentucky with questions about their attitudes, especially on the court. That was a near consensus opinion. I saw little when I watched Kentucky play and practice that would validate that opinion. But that aspect of Aaron Harrison's draft résumé will be closely scrutinized by teams.
Ultimately, an NBA team may see great value in Harrison as he falls in the draft. While he may not be the talent he was projected to be when he was in high school, he'll have the opportunity to prove doubters wrong once again, but don't be shocked if he slips into the second round.
-- Fran Fraschilla
The front-office perspective
Aaron Harrison was never ranked quite as highly as his brother Andrew. They are the same size and, in many ways, similar players, but Andrew was labeled a point guard, which made him intriguing because of his size. Aaron was labeled a 2-guard, where suddenly the size advantage was gone.
Aaron's main claim to fame was that he was a better shooter than his brother -- something that hasn't really panned out to be true the past two seasons. He takes more 3s and has made some huge clutch ones for Kentucky in his career, but in his two years at Kentucky he shot 35 percent as a freshman and 32 percent as a sophomore from 3. Those aren't the numbers of an elite shooter -- especially when you factor in how many wide-open looks Aaron would get every night. However, Aaron often plays and shoots as if he is elite.
The rest of Aaron's game is pretty pedestrian. He's a solid defender and he's very competitive, but there isn't one identifiable NBA skill you can really point to.
"He's a shooting guard who loves to shoot, but can't shoot," one NBA scout said. "No one in the NBA needs someone like that. What else to you want me to say?"
-- Chad Ford