Ahoy! Welcome to Part 2 of 2026’s Tracking A Transfer series. Our first piece covered Jurian Dixon from UC Irvine. We will now move onto Christian Harmon, the 6’6″ Senior Guard from Arkansas State (by way of JUCO Gulf Coast State College). Harmon should have two years of remaining eligibility with the 5-in-5 ruling which, in a dream world like this offseason where we return everyone eligible to do so, could allow him to carve out a role for himself this year and then build off of that carrying into next.
Harmon won All-Sun Belt Third Team honors last year while averaging 12.8 points per game for the Red Wolves on 34.6% shooting from three on a high-volume 7.6 attempts per game. He took a season-high 22 threes against South Alabama last year (we’ll look at this game) and shot 41% on those attempts – so he can certainly catch fire and show limited conscience. If you go back to his time in JUCO, though, he won the 2025 Panhandle Conference Player of The Year award and JUCO All-American honors averaging almost 17 points per game on 47.4% three-point shooting on 213 attempts! Sure, defense is a lot different in the Division I, and we saw a dip as he adjusted, but if a player can make almost half your threes on over 200 attempts against live competition, you know they can shoot! And, in watching him, even though his season-long percentage was likely lower than he would have liked, I’m quite bullish on his ability to be an effective long-distance shooting threat at this level. He has confidence, range, and I like his release and how quickly he can get into his shot. We’ll talk about it in more depth soon. He also shot 81.8% from the free throw line last year, had seven games with at least 20 points scored, grabbed almost 4 rebounds per game, and averaged 2.5 assists per game weighed against 2.0 turnovers.
Listed at 6’6″, 205 lbs., Harmon offers some positional flexibility in that you could either play him as a true Shooting Guard or move him to that wing Small Forward slot. There is a lot of length within our guard group this season, but when paired with Sam Lewis or Nolan Adekunle (more on him in a later piece), Harmon is probably giving you more of that SG role while you could still play him with Jurian Dixon and he could offer you an, admittedly smaller by feel and contrast, SF option. In addition to his shooting, I really like his strength. He’s got a physical presence about him that allows him to play through contact and finish through it and, on the defensive side, to use his chest and upper body to stonewall defenders or to subtly disrupt them. I like his mind for the game. He’s unselfish while being unafraid to call his own number. He understands how to manipulate a defense with the gravity of his shot and subtleties. He’s got very good awareness away from the ball and has good defensive positioning much of the time; including a knack for identifying where he needs to switch. I think he’ll fit very well into the culture Coach Odom is building as someone who can heat up in a hurry but will be willing to play the role that’s asked of him – and I think the aggressive subbing strategies will benefit his ability to go hard over shorter stints of time.
If I were putting together an offseason plan for Harmon to elevate this game for this coming season, I would focus almost exclusively on two things:
- Quickness and agility drills to include change of direction and burst.
- Ball handling consistency (looks like he’s putting in the work).
To be clear, when I say consistency, I mean being more consistent at limiting turnovers, sure, but also at reducing bobbles and mishandles that break up what would otherwise be good ball handling. There are times where he absolutely impresses with his handle but there’s also a good deal of him not creating the advantage that you’d think with it because the first step isn’t as quick OR a slight mishandle breaks up his momentum and allows the defender to recover.
In most of the constructive/areas for improvement in the clips below, one or both of these items are at play. I believe that the strides he’s able to make here (or not) will play a large part in defining his role; which could range from more of a one-dimensional sniper who we try to keep off of quicker defensive matchups, is probably a rotation staple, but on the lower end of those minutes – to a player who competes for a starting spot, or at least starter’s minutes, who can punish defenders keyed on his shot by attacking them off of the bounce and is a switchable defender in his own right. My guess is that he’ll fall somewhere between those ranges – and we’re about to check it out by watching him against two quality opponents in SMU and St. Mary’s, a heartbreaking OT loss against South Alabama in which he was on fire, and a conference tournament game against Georgia Southern.
And so, we’ll dive into it but…
First A Word About Arkansas State
Arkansas St. finished at 147th in Kenpom’s final rankings for 2025-2026, if you like that sort of thing. For reference, that was eleven spots ahead of Boston College and 22 ahead of Georgia Tech… so that’s fun. Their offense was ranked better than their defense, but not by a lot, and Harmon was the second most efficient player on the team according to Evan Miya (by a hair) and the most effective offensive player. Probably the most notable thing about them, as a team, is that they played at the 10th fastest pace in the country inspired by head coach Ryan Pannone, a Nate Oats disciple with NBA and European experience prior to that. The Red Wolves played a lot in transition, especially hunting the secondary break three-pointer, with their primary half-court set being a 5-out style offense with lots of pnr actions. The up-tempo style and focus on shots at the rim or around the perimeter led them to hoist 896 threes on the season – with 243 attempted by Harmon himself! Harmon helped to bring the ball up the floor on the break and to break the press at times. He navigated a ball screen here and there, but he primarily worked off of the ball to provide spacing and to look for opportunities to get his shot up. Generally, I thought Arkansas St. stuck to their strategy and principles well; but their equal opportunity style of offense coupled with how aggressive some of their players were could sometimes keep the ball from finding hot players and could also allow the opposing team to get back into games quickly. Not that Harmon could realistically complain about this – he took almost 60 more threes than anyone else on the team. While Virginia did not nearly play at the same level of pace due to more prolonged defensive possessions and being one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, Harmon should be comfortable in a similar offensive mindset of pushing the ball in transition and shot selection.
Defensively, the Red Wolves mostly played man-to-man with varying coverage styles on ball screens; at times switching everything, at times hedging, at times dropping. They helped fairly proactively off of the ball, but nothing radical or too proactive. Mostly with help side guards sliding down in front of post players whose man went to attempt to block the shot. We’ll see later, but I appreciated Harmon’s awareness while away from the ball and thought that he was normally well-positioned while identifying rotations. As a wrinkle, they also ran an extended 2-3 zone that juggled the aggressiveness of the two low wings. At times it would appear like a 1-3-1 with rotations, but it was mostly the off-side guard dropping back into the middle for coverage when the ball rotated away. They’d normally have their two guards up top in this defense match up aggressively on the ball when it was out top, and play the wings more to deny the pass to the corner and be able to take the wing until the strongside guard rotated back. Harmon was typically one of these wings within this defense. Given how we played defense all last season, having at least some experience in drop coverage man-to-man (while switching guard-to-guard) will be good for Harmon. Additionally, with coach Red Autry on the roster, there has been some talk about the possibility of us mixing in some of that Syracuse zone from time-to-time as a change of pace. If that’s not just chatter, Harmon should also have some experience there.
Alright, let’s get into it!
Offense
Generally speaking, Christian made most of his hay on the offensive end. His shot gravity required that he be accounted for and helped team spacing. His awareness and ability to get into his shot quickly, along with some other things that we’ll discuss shortly, complemented their other offensive pieces and helped execute the team’s vision and style of play. Together, he and PG Chandler Jackson were their two most effective offensive players by a considerable margin. Even though there are elements to this side of the ball that have some room to grow for him, I have no doubt that you’ll be able to plug Christian Harmon into our offense with the pieces around him that we have, and he’ll be able to contribute effectively (likely even more so given the quality of the other shooters he’ll have around him).
It all starts with the shot, though, so let’s start there.
Outside Shooting
The percentage last season, as I mentioned, wasn’t eye-popping (although it was solid at 35%). The percentage in JUCO absolutely was. The volume certainly adds to the credibility as well – he was 43rd in the country in threes attempted. All of that sticks in the back of the mind – but the main reason that I consider this an unequivocal strength for him is just watching him play. His shot is smooth and he gets into it quickly with a nice release point. He will shoot it from deep and off of the move. The vast majority of his misses are close and around the inside of the rim.
It’s not lost on me that in my last piece on Jurian Dixon, I wondered about his outside shot despite him having made 38.5% last season. It was the amount of time it took him to get into his shot, the opportunities that he passed up, the lack of apparent comfort at times. Dixon is a nice shooter who is good at knocking down an open shot. Harmon is a nice shooter who is open on considerably more shot opportunities. As a result, I don’t expect to see him struggle to adjust in this area at the ACC level despite the tougher defensive matchups that he’ll face. In each of his previous two stops, he was THE primary concern of opposing defenses. Here, he’ll likely be the 3rd, 4th, or even 5th concern of the defense at any given time when he’s on the floor. I expect he’ll get some looks and he doesn’t need much time or space. Not to mention, when he played higher-level teams last season like St. Mary’s and SMU, he played well offensively; scoring 21 and 16 points respectively and shooting 40% or above from deep in both games.
Okay, let’s go ahead and finally jump in! In this first clip, below, we see him get open through some screening actions with him as the screener. I really like the idea of Harmon himself as a screener because he sets solid ones and then has to be accounted for immediately on the pop action. Here against St. Mary’s he sets a pin down screen that forces a switch and then represents a backdoor screen before slipping out for the shot.
Notice the good footwork in setting himself up to shoot with little wasted movement and the fluid, confident take.
Here’s another look from the same game with a Spain screen action where he initially sets a pin down for a big, then represents that back screen again before popping out to the top of the key. Very similar thought as the previous clip but this time his defender, the 6’3″ Joshua Dent (#7) switches onto him. The guarding position is decent enough that Harmon comes to a full stop, but Dent just gives too much cushion and Christian is comfortable simply pulling up and shooting over him.
That shot actually gave the Red Wolves the lead halfway through the first half.
Arkansas St. designed a lot of out of bounds plays to get him outside shots. This one sets up a flare screen to the corner to get him a quality look:
That kind of close out looks decent in terms of effort, but it’s not going to bother him and that’s much more than enough space.
In their Sun Belt Tournament game against Georgia Southern, Arkansas went on a considerable scoring drought late in the second half. This was the play that broke it, below, as they dialed up a BLOB action to get him the ball moving to his right using a couple of decoy screens to occupy the defense at first:
I liked not only that they turned to him in this moment (as they did often in big moments at the end of games), but that he knocked it down when the momentum had swung against them and that he looked so comfortable doing so while catching on the move. He’s definitely comfortable getting into his shot while moving away from the ball.
And here’s one more BLOB look against Southern Illinois. I like this one because it gives a good angle at how little space he needs to maneuver to get his shot off. This is just a simple screen to the strong side corner that typically doesn’t yield much. Harmon is able to get the look up over two contests, though, including that of the 6’8″ Adam Olsen (#12) helping from the baseline.
Like, that’s just not much real estate needed nor any fancy or overly quick movement to cut off of the screen. It’s simply a nice release with confidence on the catch in a tight space.
In general, that’s a theme that should be discussed about the value and danger he poses as a shooter. Because he can operate in tight spaces and comfortably get his shot off, it makes benign-looking situations dangerous. This next clip, below, is a miss but I think it illustrates the point pretty well in addition to the corner three above. Harmon starts off in the top corner and ends up in this little passing triangle. He eventually takes a ball screen on the wing with his screener slipping into the corner. There is not much space on that pass that’s delivered there and next to no advantage created on the rotation. Still, just that little slip and recovery allows Harmon to quickly drift back out to the wing, take a return pass, and get a quick shot up.
Sure, he misses here, but it’s not hard to see how precise and alert he forces the defense to be while trying to stay attached to him.
Harmon wasn’t very aggressive with his dribble, especially from parity, which we’ll talk about more later. It was common for him to take a dribble like this one, below, that wasn’t as clean or hesitated a little and allowed the defense to peck in at the ball or swarm around. Ideally, he could catch this one with this gap and make a little more headway downhill. Once he gets the ball out, though, watch how quickly and dangerously that flare screen can set him up to punish the defense:
He didn’t initiate the offense in the pick and roll on a large percentage of possessions, but when he did, such as on this play after an offensive rebound reset the possession, watch how much of a threat he was to pull up if his man struggled to get around the screen. In this clip, below, after Boopie Miller (#2) gets caught on the ball screen, that’s 6’6″ Jaron Pierre Jr. (#5) who was just selected in the second round of the NBA draft by the Pelicans contesting his shot. Pierre recognizes the threat pretty quickly and actually gets pretty close on his contest, nearly making contact with Harmon’s follow through, but Christian buries the opportunity nevertheless.
That’s one of the things that I admire most about his outside shot is that he keeps good concentration and doesn’t appear overly bothered by quality contests.
Here below, for example, we see the 6’7″ Dillan Shaw (#11) on St. Mary’s shadowing Harmon while he hangs out in the corner. The play looks to be going nowhere until the ball reverses back to Jalen Hampton (#12) for the Red Wolves and he’s able to attack the lane. Shaw gets sucked in a little too far with his help and, more so, is a little slow on his initial identification that he needs to recover. That being said, Harmon’s release really punishes this mistake and he remains unbothered that this longer player is still barreling down on him.
And even when he does run the pick and roll as a passer, like he does in this clip below, he punishes the defense if they don’t remain aware of him. This is a nice use of the screen against a zone, setting it up one way and then utilizing it the other, which allows him to gain some space in the lane. He plays under control, sucks the defense in, and gets a pass out to the corner for the shot. The result is a poorly missed shot – but Georgia Southern gets caught asleep while attempting to scrap for the rebound as a collective, and the subsequent tap out allows Harmon to punish their folly.
And then, a nice wrinkle, because teams have to take his shot so seriously, he can punish their overly-aggressive close outs with the shot fake, as we see in this next clip. He does use this to his advantage on the drive some as we’ll see later, but I like that when he causes a flyby like this one that he can just take a solitary dribble, step back behind the line, and calmly knock down the shot.
It’s tempting to think of him more as a catch and shoot type of player because of the volume and because he does play more off the ball; but I do think it’s important to note that he’s just a natural shooter and is comfortable getting into his shot however it makes sense.
That being said, he is a fantastic option to have as a catch and shoot threat, and he can get into it from deep, as well. This is the first basket of the game against South Alabama and you can see how he’s sizing up the potential for the shot while passing the ball across the point and then takes advantage of his opponent not taking it seriously enough.
That’s a pretty big logo… but he’s shooting from well within the “S.” That range really puts pressure on a defense to extend their shape well-beyond the three-point line. If they don’t, they can get punished but, if they do, it opens up more space than usual for Harmon’s teammates to attack as driving lanes.
Here’s another one from the Moon in the same game:
It’s so deep that it’s not actually that the offense created the space through their ball movement; it’s that the defender hesitated to come out that far because he doubted that he needed to or should. At about 13 seconds you can see the nearest defender relax until he sees Harmon get into his shooting motion. The contest still isn’t bad, which makes the shot all the more impressive. This was Harmon’s 33-point game led by 41% shooting on his 22 three-point attempts.
The confidence certainly helped, but look at how much space he’s giving himself on these shots because of his range:
Okay, the last clip I’ll leave you from this session that impressed me re: Harmon as a gamer. This game against South Alabama was a wild one in which Arkansas St. led by 18 with just under 8 minutes to go and ended up losing in OT. This clip comes with about 30 seconds left in the game, the Red Wolves down 4 and pressing late, after dealing with this huge momentum swing against them. Harmon not only deflects the pass with his pressure, causing the turnover, but he pops out to the corner, has to jump to corral a high pass, lands, and then immediately goes right back up to slash the margin to 1.
It didn’t work out for them, but that’s a massive play for a disheartened team to take a game from two-possessions to one-possession even after a foul. I love that fight and that composure in that moment!
So, yeah, we’ll see more of his shot in other sections and we can move on here – but I do think that Harmon’s three-point shot will be a significant asset for us this year. Likely more so than just looking at the stat sheet from last season and trying to project might let on.
Self-Creation
This is one of the core areas where I’d like to see Harmon improve his game. The gravity of his shot is real, and so he draws some reckless closeouts and also gets less of a buffer from his defenders. When he did well in this area, it was often attacking that advantage, as he should. He didn’t have as much success beating his man off of the dribble from a set defensive position, though. Many drives would end up stalling after a couple of dribbles either due to him not getting the best first step, defenders closing the gap on him, or a bobble with his handle eliminating the advantage. It was a shame because, as we’ll see in the next section, I also like his finishing suite when he does get into the rim. In addition to the above, or perhaps because of it, I didn’t think he often enough challenged his man and forced him to defend the bounce. It worked for him as a connector, which we’ll also see later, as I liked how he sees the floor and keeps the ball moving, but I think too often his defender could become comfortable as long as he got there in time to deny the shot.
The truth is, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that Harmon could improve considerably in this area, even scaling up in competition. As mentioned, the shot gravity gives him an initial advantage but, also, his strength allows him to keep players on his hip, in prison, or just kind of to hold them off of the ball. A slightly quicker burst and more confident/consistent handle would go a long way into making him a more multi-dimensional offensive threat.
Let’s start with the good. Here, in this first clip, he is being guarded by the 6’6″, 205lb, Kevin Gad (#24) for St. Mary’s. Harmon gets the ball on the perimeter in isolation toward the back half of the shot clock. It’s a nice move, setting up the drive toward the left and then bringing the ball back between his legs quickly toward his right. Despite this, there’s a slight element of being unsure of the handle where he hesitates to gather before pressing back to his right. This allows Gad to remain in decent guarding position, keeping his body between Harmon and the hoop but, despite this, Christian stays tough on the ball, maintains his angle, and plays through Gad’s body, with the nice finish over the contest at the end.
You can see here, against a player roughly his size, he didn’t create much of an advantage but he also didn’t need to create much of an advantage because of his strength and finishing. It’s not hard to imagine how a slightly quicker burst and cleaner gather on the cross could have led to an advantage on the drive such that the finish wasn’t as difficult (and maybe a slightly trailing defender fouls trying to contest).
I mentioned earlier that he didn’t have a heavy workload initiating out of the pick and roll as the ball handler – but he did do it. In this clip below, you see him come off of a DHO and I think he does a nice job of taking a quicker angle downhill, creating space between the trailer but leaving space such as not to get to close to the drop coverage. He’s got a solid floater, which we’ll see later, that allows him to capitalize on this space:
I like the aggressiveness and the willingness to go right into this shot. This will be a theme throughout the whole piece – I think he’s a smart player who does a nice job of calculating where his advantages are and is able to take advantage of them.
Here, below, is another nice look at that with him running the pick and roll on the delayed break. The word I’d use for this is control. There’s a slight prison dribble after misdirection setting up the ball screen, and then he takes his time working his way into the lane until the big has to react to his man diving – then he gets into his floater.
That kind of play comes from an experienced player who isn’t getting sped up and knows how to get to his spot, again, once the advantage is there.
I also think he’s a pretty savvy cutter without the ball and is good at catching it in traffic. We see this mostly with him running off of screens trying to free up his outside shot – but he’s also able to take advantage of over-pursuit and offers another area of him making smart basketball plays. In this clip, below, he starts from a typical position in the corner. When his teammate’s drive stalls, he presents to the wing to help. From there, he tosses the ball to a big and goes to represent a DHO. The handoff is faked, but then notice the subtle appearance of fanning back to the corner, only to dive down the lane using one hand to call for the pass with the other shielding his man behind him. It’s a nice catch in a tight space (and great pass) and a smooth finish.
I just like the awareness that Harmon has of how to find places on the floor with space and this idea of spending a bunch of time throughout a game trying to lose his man so that he can shoot an open three – only to flip the script later on.
The other way that Harmon creates for himself that’s certainly relevant to what we do is by crashing the offensive glass. He’s not a super springy athlete who is going to go in and go over guys to get the ball in most cases – but he is opportunistic, picks his spots well, and has a knack for getting some clean runs with good timing.
Two quick examples – here’s a nice one with good anticipation. The back side of the defense is cleared out, but notice how quickly he starts his dive toward the hoop when the shot goes up and also how he identifies the opportunity when the defender down low starts shading into the middle.
This next one came at the end of the same game on a big possession, trying to protect a four-point lead (I can’t believe they lost this game, by the way). The shot, once again, goes up baseline, and Harmon finds a very nice crease to crash through, collects the offensive rebound, draws the foul (and buries both free throws).
Alert. Opportunistic. Anticipatory. This isn’t the most traditional meaning of self-creation; but still very much aligned with what he’ll be asked to do for us when we sometimes send 4 to 5 guys to the glass. This nose for the ball will be useful.
Okay, that being said, let’s now take a look at a few areas for growth in this area. I like this next clip, below, because I think it shows that there’s some really nice potential here. Harmon takes his time reading the court while dribbling, and then sets up a nice right-to-left cross-over that completely loses his man, the 6’3″ B.J. Edwards (#0). In a perfect world, he just comes out of this on balance and shoots a three. The problem is, he kind of staggers himself, then has to regroup and then bobbles the ball with his left hand a bit before deciding to flip the ball to a teammate instead.
That’s something to work with. The cross itself was quick and deceptive, but he needed to be able to do something with the advantage it created.
Here, below, is where I think he’s lacking some decisiveness and some burst. He catches the ball going around a nice screen that creates space for him. The SMU big playing drop coverage is the 6’10” Mitchell Holmes (#13). There would be a lot of space here for Harmon to put the ball in his left hand and attack Holmes diagonally down the lane. Perhaps he draws help and has a kickout to the corner, perhaps he gets Holmes in a bad position and draws a foul… point being there’s space to play with there and an advantage to try to exploit. Instead, he’s immediately looking over his shoulder for his man, attempts to hunt the prison dribble and, when he can’t get it, stalls out and passes the ball back out.
We looked at some clips earlier where he played under control, took his time, and worked his way to one of his spots. Here, though, he’s too cautious, doesn’t attack the space, and the decision to defer ends up in a turnover (which, that part wasn’t his fault, his teammate simply just doesn’t catch the ball… but it points to opportunity cost of the decision).
This next clip, below, I actually initially captured as part of the “Facilitation” section to show him as a connector. I really like his passing against the zone, the way he manipulates the defense with his eyes, his patience, the way he just kind of keeps probing with his passes. I’ve moved it to this section, though (in addition to having some other clips I wanted to use for the other), because if you notice throughout this play, he’s standing almost fully upright much of the time. Especially on that first cross-court pass to him where the defense rotates and there’s a potential driving gap, he’s not really interested in it, nor does he really ever threaten to put the ball on the deck. He threatens with a shot fake, which pulls the defense to him, he forces them to stay near because he’s consistently spotting up, but the defense really only has to consider him as a perimeter presence at any given time.
I want to be very clear by reiterating – that’s good basketball from Harmon on that clip – and I pulled it at first to show how I like his ability to manipulate the defense without having to move much or putting the ball on the ground. It’s a bit of a double-edged example, though, because I do think it’s a good example of the kind of thing it’s hard to pull into one specific clip and is more an impression formed over watching a bunch of games – that often he’s content being solely the perimeter presence/threat.
I think one of the reasons we see some reluctance is because he doesn’t always have consistency on that side of his game when he gets sped up. I mentioned earlier that he averaged 2 turnovers per game, which would have been higher than anyone on our team last year, including Thijs De Ridder, who we often lamented his ball security last year. It’s not terrible considering how many possessions Arkansas St. had, but considering that Harmon wasn’t the primary playmaker and played more regularly away from the ball, it’s a bit high. In many games, there were a handful of moments where he just felt a little careless or sloppy with the ball. Perhaps getting slightly ahead of himself with his momentum and losing his balance like here:
Or, in this play late in the game against Georgia Southern where he makes a nice initial jab step but gets hung up on his drive and goes to the floor while trying to gather himself/bracing for contact that doesn’t come.
One drawback of being such a big guard is that momentum can be a challenge.
In this clip against South Alabama, he cautiously dribbles right into a triple team and gets swarmed/loses the ball.
And in this one, from the same game, he’s working to help break the press and has the ball right at half court with two seconds left. Instead of establishing himself across the half court line and just dealing with/passing out of the press, instead he hesitates and then jump passes a long pass (it’s a violation because the rule is on the touch, not the pass).
All, in all, there is an element of loss of concentration or discipline to some of these – but I think it still ties mostly to my two initial points. If he improves his quickness just a little and tightens up his handle, he will feel more comfortable putting the ball on the floor to attack more opportunities, will have fewer moments where bobbles disrupt what he was intending to do, and should have fewer of these clumsy-ish mishaps where he gets his momentum going and then can’t bring it back when he loses his balance.
That being said, when he does get the opportunity, I do like his…
Finishing
Okay, so while I always want players to have multi-dimensional games, this is another reason that I’d love to see Harmon be able to create more opportunities for himself around the rim. I showed his floater earlier, but I think it’s pretty good. Here’s a nice look of him getting it off in a tight window over a guy we are familiar with, the 7’2″ Samet Yiğitoğlu.
The shot itself is really difficult over such an intrusive contest, but an understated thing I like about that play, going back to his savvy again, is how he notices that his teammate has stalled out in the lane – rather than going right at him or fading away to just bail him out, Harmon starts to dive on the outside of his defender, setting him up to get depth so that he can curl around his own man for effectively a nifty, and deep, DHO.
SMU was probably the most athletic and physically imposing team Arkansas St. faced last year, so it was encouraging to see this be one of his better games in this area. Here, below, you do see not one, but two slight bobbles from Harmon on this possession. That being said, he still gets the ball going downhill on his cut. That’s, again, the 6’10” 230 lb. Mitchell Holmes stepping up to contest his drive. I love how Harmon takes the contact here, hangs, and then finishes comfortably around quality length.
I mentioned earlier that he’s not the most explosive leaper, but that’s really good strength and arial control with the ball. He’s not shying away from contact or worrying about getting blocked in there – he’s going right into the body of the shot blocker and having the concentration to finish.
Here’s another look, below, where he ends up getting the ball in a pick and roll situation toward the end of the shot clock. It comes after another curl from the corner on the DHO and, again, it’s a methodical march down the lane. That being said, he once again keeps his defender on his back, this time draws contact, and that’s a very good finish off of the glass while contorting his body and going to the floor.
To link this with some of the thoughts from the previous section. You see how a slightly quicker step would help here – but this is still an athletic major conference team and his strength and skill both play well here.
Finally, this is actually my favorite drive of all of them across this section and the “Self-Creation” section. This is how I’d like to see him play more often with regard to being decisive after his shot fake works. In fact, he doesn’t even have to show the ball, but he attacks the close out, which gets him completely around his man on the base line drive. It’s not a clear path, though, as he ends up with three guys around him going up. I like how he shows the ball while going up here, but then brings it down under the shot block, draws the foul, and gets the shot back up on the rim for the and-1.
That’s just plain pretty finishing in traffic -> after slashing with purpose -> after creating an advantage via the threat of his best skill.
Just to put a little bow on this section – this is another element of why I am so hopeful about Harmon’s offensive game. He’s not just a shooter. I think he can be a full-on scorer. He just needs to refine and polish going from point A to point B so that he has more frequent opportunities at point B.
Facilitation
To this point, we’ve exclusively looked at Harmon’s ability to put the ball in the bucket. It’s time to take a look at how he sets up others around him. There are similar limitations to this element of his game where he’s not slashing to the rim or beating his man off of the bounce a ton – but I do think he’s a good passer. It’s less impactful when defenders impede his progress because he can still find the right place to go with the ball. He’s a nice connector who keeps things moving – rarely does it stick with him – but I also appreciate how he often just keeps things simple and puts his teammates in good positions simply by subtly manipulating the defense, making them react to the threat of his shot, or moving them with his eyes. Don’t look for him to be the guy who makes the big thing happen out of thin air – but do look for him to be able to press an advantage.
One thing I’ll start out by saying is that I thought there were plenty of opportunities for him to pick up additional assists throughout the many games I watched/scoured. That’s technically true for every player any time a teammate misses a shot, but there’s missed shots and then there’s just passing up a created opportunity. Here’s an example, below, where he crosses out of a presented ball screen nicely and very smoothly flips a pass to the slipper with his left hand. That’s the 7-footer Aly Tounkara (#13) on the catch who, if he turns over his right shoulder toward the hoop, should be able to get a shot up or at least draw some contact. Instead, he bobbles the ball, turns over his left shoulder, and harmlessly kicks the ball out to the opposite wing.
The decision generates a long three-point attempt, but it squanders the best opportunity from that play, which was the pass from Harmon.
This next one isn’t as bad, but it’s still a neat lead into a situation where you’d want to challenge the prospective shot blocker. Harmon reads and executes some nice back door passes but on this one his teammate just keeps cutting across the lane rather than trying to get into the body of the rotating Center.
Still, it’s good awareness to set up some positive action going toward the hoop.
We’ll have a transition section, but here’s a perfectly executed left-handed pass on the run to hit his teammate in stride going toward the hoop that… he just doesn’t go up with.
I’d imagine pretty much anyone who could be on the receiving end of that pass at UVa would at least get the shot up on the glass – and very likely would have had two points.
This next one, after really nice hustle tracking down the tap out, he uses the broken defense to get inside the three-point line and deliver an absolute no-look dime to Jalen Hampton (#12) – but no luck on the conversion.
Here, below, might be one of my favorite moments of him utilizing his dribble to good effect. He still doesn’t get a path right toward the hoop, but that hesitation cross is quick and allows him to get the defender on his hip in a straight-line parallel to the hoop. He then flips a tasty little pass to Hampton again who… kind of stumbles into the set defender and loses the ball.
That was a nice play and good floor vision from Harmon, though! Good feel for where to put the ball.
I just want to reiterate the point here that all of these are passes that have created solid scoring opportunities and none of them have led to points yet. So, even though I’ve talked about his 2.5-2.0 assist to turnover ration – I do think that both of those numbers will trend in positive directions with us as similar opportunities will more frequently lead to points and he also doesn’t have to make as much happen within the hierarchy of the team.
Where he’s also better as a facilitator than creating his own offense is that, while he may not always lose his man enough for a quality shot, he can still get paint touches with his strength. This does often have the effect of drawing help defense around him and then allowing him to find some nice reads. Here, for example, he takes the pick and roll moving toward the baseline, but just kind of walks his man toward the paint with strength. This draws a second defender and also gives his teammate some space to loop around to the vacant spot to take the kick out.
Nothing fancy there but calmly getting a paint touch and then reading where to go with the ball – but effective for generating a good shot.
Similar here, below, this is what I’d love to see him do more often. That’s a great shot fake from the corner and then he drives into the lane under control, draws two more defenders, and kicks it back out for a clean three-point attempt (which, again, misses).
I like how he plays off of two feet here once he gets into the lane – stays patient, and finds the right pass. He effectively occupies three players on the same play here without any kind of blistering speed toward the basket.
Here, below, again just simple basketball. A jab step that moves his man probably a little more than normal because of the recovery to worry about the spot up. A quick probe toward the lane drawing the opposite side defender, and a kick out for the shot:
Now, where I will say that the same areas of growth I mentioned at the beginning of the piece and highlighted in the “Self-Creation” section do come into play here. Watch this turnover, below against SMU. Harmon takes an outlet moving up the floor and moves into a ball screen. After his inside-out dribble that he takes to start moving to his right, he bobbles the ball for just a moment. Check out around 4 seconds into the clip he has to look down to gather it. This moment of hesitation, as small as it is, makes all the difference with an athletic defense blitzing him. It’s also probably a wake-up call to major conference athleticism as he attempts to look off the defender to his diving teammate and fire the pass to the corner, but Jaron Pierre Jr is NBA talent – and he has the quickness and length to show on the dive, bait the pass, and still cut down the passing angle to the corner.
Basketball is such a game of details. The fact that Harmon’s bobble pushes him so far up the point and that his teammate is so deep in the corner also makes that a rough passing angle. If the dive from the screen doesn’t fan out so wide and takes an angle more to the middle of the paint, Pierre Jr. likely can’t cover both as effectively. Harmon is also on his back foot, almost pushing back after fading away from the pressure that puts less mustard on the pass. Not all of those things are on Harmon, but the bobble of the dribble absolutely makes it harder for him to make the right play here.
Here’s another look against St. Mary’s that doesn’t result in a turnover and actually ends up with a solid shot that could have/should have been made. I like this desire to attack from the wing and the behind-the-back dribble to take the angle into the lane. A player with his strength should absolutely have this spin move back after probing, too, but there’s another bobble of that dribble again and he has to gather. Fortunately, the defense attempts to collapse on the ball and Harmon whips a really nice pass back out – but it’s another drive that’s showing promise but gets stymied again because the handle isn’t quite as consistent.
Still, appreciate the look he was able to generate from the paint touch despite how he got there. Good composure.
Okay, and this last example, is a subtle one that, once again, has another good opportunity come out of it but I think also illustrates the broader area for growth. This is pretty late in the Conference Tournament against Georgia Southern. Arkansas St. has been on a significant drought to this point, missing a lot of threes, and needs a quality look. Harmon comes around a curl screen and gets the ball – and has the advantage. You can see him hunting the prison dribble while his man drives. There’s room to fan wider there on his right hand, go down the right side of the lane and then either find the screener rolling to the hoop, get to his own shot, or draw that defender and kick the pass out to the corner. Keeping the ball, trying to take it deeper into the lane, and then reading his options is the best way to exploit this advantage. Instead, he takes the contact from the trailing defender and one-hands a pretty nice look in its own right to the wing for another three-point attempt.
In a vacuum, that’s not a bad play. It got a good look (that, again, wasn’t made for him). But, the game situation was that they were ice cold so this was kind of settling and you can probably get this kind of look later in the possession. Having the ability/confidence to prolong his dribble here, hold off his defender, and get the ball deeper before making a decision would have been preferable. Think some of those Dallin Hall prison dribbles last year where he wasn’t overly quick but was using his strength and wiles (and patience) to hold his defender and get the ball closer to the hoop.
What happened there was fine – but that next step is the opportunity for growth and development.
Transition
Trying to push the ball where possible was a considerable overlap between what we do under Coach Odom and what the Red Wolves tried to do last season. Probably unsurprisingly, he’s most effective as a secondary break three-point option against an unset defense. If a transition opportunity wasn’t obvious and he was running ahead, he was often trying to find open real estate from deep. Arkansas State would look to set him up when they could, as well.
Here’s one of my favorite looks at this where Arkansas St. gets the ball and pushes up the floor. Harmon runs ahead and then cuts through under the hoop from corner to corner. Hampton (#12) spots this and sets a back screen on the nearest defender – allowing the skip pass ahead to the corner to be wide-open. South Alabama attempts to close out hard, but that’s a nice shot fake and reset by Harmon before he buries the opportunity.
He will often trail the play and look for the defense to collapse and to take the kick out – especially when he’s feeling it. Here’s a look where he misses, but you can see how his plan as soon as his team gets this ball is to lurk and see if he can find an opportunity from deep, which he does.
Here’s a much better look at how devastating this can be. Firstly, a nice rebound from him – he secures the ball and then finds a good and quick outlet. Notice as he trails the play on the run ahead, how deep he spots up for the pass back. That depth ensures that the contest isn’t really close enough to bother him.
Let’s be serious, though… that’s a sick weapon. Not only does it fit our transition philosophy of getting the ball up the floor quickly initially, but the range here along with how comfortably he takes it is very enticing. Sometimes when guys shoot from this far out, you see them take their time with it – Harmon has his same shooting motion and release from this far out.
That being said, for all of the same reasons, I would expect him to look for those kinds of shooting opportunities, above, or to function more as a passer than someone who is going to force the issue. This clip below is a pretty nice continuation and a great find across the court, for example.
But, I expect that more often you’re going to see him under control and just taking what’s there when the ball is in his hands rather than trying to force the issue:
Because when he does force the issue a bit and jam it into traffic – well, I just don’t think that’s really his game. It’s that same issue of being a little too loose with the ball still, getting a little too much momentum going, and not quite having that burst, vertical explosion, or change of direction to account for situations like this one below:
And not just forcing the issue with his dribble. When he’s pressing to make something happen, it can cause him to get tunnel vision from time to time and not identify risks. This clip below is a nice steal by Harmon with quick hands on a pass – nicely anticipating where the ball was going to go. But in trying to lead the breakout the other way, he either doesn’t see the defender or is just too quick with his pass, and gets picked off the other way. Some better court vision here and more air on the pass farther toward the hoop would have gone a long way.
Still, despite all of that, he will be a weapon at this element of the game even if he just finds space to get his shot up, makes the easy passes, and keeps working to get the ball ahead under control. We won’t need him to be that coast-to-coast threat when he can focus on keeping the defense stretched and alert while making the smart play.
Okay, hopefully that gives a pretty full picture of his offensive game. I think he’s a pretty high-floor player on this side of the ball because he should be able to get his shot and, as mentioned, I really like his shot. Additionally, he’s just a smart player who plays the game in a way that should put his teammates in positive positions. He likely won’t be asked to carry as much of the direct offensive load, just take advantage of the right situations, which he does well. That being said, there is opportunity to grow his game and to have a bigger impact if he can make the right strides.
There may be ranges as to where his offense will end up this year – but I think those all very across a spectrum of positive contribution. The thing, in my opinion, that will really determine how his role shakes out on this team is going to be the other side of the ball….
Defense
Last year our perimeter defense was probably the single weakest area on our team; but we played the system well and relied heavily on two of the best shot blockers in the sport. This year, one of those returns – but it’s unclear how many minutes he will be able to play on average. It’s also unclear, and seems unlikely, that his backup will hold a candle to Ugo’s rim protection. Of course, Favor Ibe and his insane 7’8″ wingspan coupled with his plus mobility could surprise. I think the hope is that he will.
That established, having a disruptive and aggressive perimeter defense will likely be more important this season (and it’s always preferable). And, unlike last year, we appear to have a lot of options and size to make that the case. Harmon absolutely has the length and strength for it, especially if he’s being played at the SG alongside of a wing like Sam Lewis or Nolan Adekunle (more to come on them); but will he reliably be able to stay in front of and pressure his man at this level? That will be the question.
It is the defensive side of the ball that will likely determine the role Harmon plays this year. I think he’s a smart defender who positions well. I think that his strength is an asset that allows him to disrupt his covers and guard up a little bit. That being said, I do worry about him guarding quickness, especially in a system that likes to switch guard-to-guard. There were times last season that we’ll look at where that as a struggle, at times, across reaction time, cutting off sharp retreat angles, and changing direction/accelerating into close outs. Additionally, he doesn’t have great verticality to his game, so when he does support from help side, he needs to rely on good anticipation and positioning or bothering the offensive player on the way up.
On Ball
Let’s go ahead and get right into it. When Harmon is playing defense on the ball well, he’s active with his hands, physical with the ball handler, and takes nice retreat angles with very good body control. In this clip below, while guarding the 6’6″ B.J. Davis-Ray (#9), he does take a slight misstep to his left while defending out by the logo. Despite that, he takes a good retreat angle and then bodies up his man around the free throw line, effectively shutting down the drive once he became attached at closer space.
When Harmon can get his chest on his man in tight quarters with those arms straight up, he’s a bit of a brick wall who can shut down some momentum even if he gets slightly out of position.
Here’s a good example of that, below, where he gets beaten off of the first step but is still on his man’s hip running down the lane. His body contact and harassment forces a wild runner that’s nowhere close to going in.
If you’ve played the game, you’ll remember the first time you ran into that player who was so solid physically that there was just no give when you bumped him while dribbling. You want that block to be called, but it’s not a block as much as there just isn’t much give. It’s jarring and can be very disruptive. There’s a lot of that guy in Harmon’s defensive game.
When he’s at his best, he’s able to subtly use his physicality very effectively to throw his man off of his game. Watch this clip below. That’s 6’7″ 220lb Nakavieon White handling the ball. Certainly, not a small dude. Harmon presses his dribble early, using his right hand to be physical, checking him initially. White tries to turn the corner, but Harmon does an excellent job of shutting the door with his body and taking the shoulder without getting thrown off balance. The contact actually throws White off balance who then tries to come to an awkward stop with his back to the basket but travels in the process.
I absolutely love Harmon’s physicality on the ball there with a player who outweighed him by about 15lbs. Completely took him out of his rhythm.
Here, is another look late in that game (which was a conference tournament game) with Arkansas St. needing a stop. Firstly, shout out that the Red Wolves are trapping and Harmon is effectively covering (at least shading) three people on the back end here. I like the recovery over to Alden Applewhite (#13), another 6’7″ player. This is what I talk about strength AND body control. Harmon does a nice job of shutting down the baseline and just when you think Applewhite might turn the corner, Harmon pulls the chair out from under him, forcing him to fall.
This is an old post move that defenders used to do – and I think about Karl Malone doing it so frequently because he was so strong and offensive players used to lean on him so hard. But, basically, it’s once you feel that your body weight is actually supporting their balance, you back away and they fall. The impressive thing from Harmon here is that he’s not actually being posted up here, he’s responding to a drive, so not only is the offensive player pressing so hard to fight against his strength, but his backpedal on the move is impressive.
When guys did try to back him down, well, that wasn’t the right approach. I really like this possession again from Harmon, full-on attacking the dribble on the perimeter and then trying to get at the ball a second time again. His man tries to spin off of him and use his off arm to hold, but Harmon is able to push him off balance on the drive with his chest and into the support double team.
I could see this kind of defensive set happening for us with either of our Centers being there to help smother a staggering driver like this, getting hit with a double team and forcing a kick out. Lots of our system and how aggressive we’d want our guys to be on the ball laced throughout this one.
Here’s a really nice look at his ability to retreat with fantastic body control in another important game situation. His man (White again) has really good momentum on the catch while driving into the lane. The fluidity of that retreat and consistent re-positioning of his body angle without making contact or fouling is really, really nice. The cherry on top is that he gets his hand on the ball and rips it off of White, as well, forcing the turnover.
Love the fire he shows after the defensive play in this situation, as well. He’s absolutely not just a guy who puts all of his effort into the offensive side of the ball – he’ll give you his all on both sides.
One more look at this, this time in full transition, absorbing the contact and keeping a shot from being able to go up without fouling:
One more thing worth noting – during South Alabama’s comeback against them, 6’8″ Forward Adam Olsen got red hot shooting the ball and couldn’t be guarded. We’re going to see a clip where it didn’t go so well in a minute, but I generally thought that decision paid off well for Arkansas State.
This clip, below, shows Harmon pressed up on Olsen (#12) at the beginning of the play. To combat this, South Alabama, who had been playing through Olsen, use him as a screener. This forces Harmon to switch onto the ball. In isolation, he gets his hips opened a little too much here and does allow a driving lane, but he’s still there on the pressure and funnels his man into the shot blocker. Between the pressure and both of their contests, they are able to force a miss at the rim at a time where South Alabama had been scorching.
So, there are a lot of elements to Harmon’s game that I like on the defensive side; and if we were inclined to be able to just put him on most wings, let him guard up or even, and be physical on them, I would feel really good about that. I do think that, back to the first area of the piece, that his first step and change of direction limit his effectiveness when covering quickness or when scrambling.
Here’s a first look against St. Mary’s, this time the cover is the 6’3″, 185lb Mikey Lewis (#0). Lewis rejects the ball screen, and Harmon doesn’t really bite on the threat, but Lewis is still able to turn the corner on him and get beyond him down the lane for the finish:
The thing about that one is that it’s not really an exceptional move or anything to juke Harmon – it’s more just a simple burst of acceleration and then speed that keeps Christian from being able to flip his hips and cut off the angle.
In general, and this is a reason that I talk about agility, burst, change of direction – because of all of that, he often looks stiff or tentative turning corners. In this next clip, below, you see him picking up aggressively against 6’3″ 190lb Joshua Dent (#7). Harmon attempts to harass the handle, but on two separate occasions he gets just kind of out run and cut off on sharper angles. The first time he’s backed up by support on the wing, but then after the DHO, he just kind of gets caught on a curl and ends up fully chasing again.
Fortunately, the team defense was alert and active there, but especially if you’re trying to put pressure on the ball handler, you don’t want them to be able to get the upper hand but just kind of prolonging their dribble and curling around you. Harmon needed to be able to get into either a flatter angle to shut down the drive or to more quickly be able to flip his hips with the drive and stay attached.
Here’s a similar look, below, against the same player where, this time, he concedes a foul on the floor.
The concerning part isn’t conceding a foul on the floor… that happens all of the time. It’s more what led to it – because Dent is not known as an exceptionally quick or fast player – but he’s creating advantage here mostly by building up speed and running at angles, and he is fully turning the corner.
So, while I like Harmon in these closer spaces where he can leverage his strength, he’s going to have to prove that he can turn the corner with, or just flatly turn and run with these ACC-level guards that he is bound to be switched onto through ball screen actions.
The other part is the change of direction element. When he’s recovering toward players, it can be difficult for him to stop that momentum and get going back in the other direction. Here is a very good look at this as he sags into the lane to help from the wing but then has to close out to his man. The closeout leaves him grasping at air and he ends up having to switch on the recovery with good help side support. This puts him in a position where he needs to close out again, though, which this time you see he’s much more cautious and approaches with too much restraint. Even with the significant distance between him and the driver, though, when his right shoulder is attacked off of the bounce, Harmon kind of just has to open up and let his man go. He jumps and ends up passing the ball, which doesn’t really amount to much – but that’s a lot of positive momentum on that play created by getting Harmon on the move and driving at his recoveries.
This next one, below, against SMU is a similar feel with the fly by on the shot contest after needing to close out on his man – which this time leads to a comfortable pull up.
It’s not the same degree as to that previous clip, but I do think it shows a little panic on Harmon’s end. It should be noted that this is a zone, so perhaps not the best for the “On Ball” section – but I think because he’s worried about being late on his rotation for the close out that he just bites too hard on the shot fake and takes himself out of the play. There’s enough of a gap there on the catch that you would think a shot is coming.
And then this last one, below, is against Olsen from South Alabama. This time we see the same physicality on the ball and retreat on the dribble that he was successful with above – but Olsen is a bigger body and is a little more able to stand up to the contact. He stops his drive with precision but Harmon’s momentum staggers him a bit and it takes him a few slides before he can recover. This gives Olsen more than enough time and space to knock down the jumper.
It’s that whole change of direction thing where, once his momentum is going one way with some intention, he’s got to work on breaking that momentum more quickly and bursting back the other way.
The encouraging element in all of this is that Harmon was situationally a very good defender. He understood angles well, did a nice job of being physical, and can influence offense players. When he matched up against most bigger wings, he could effectively lean on those skills to positive effect. It’s just that he didn’t have the quick feet to contend with speedier guards consistently – and many more of the players he’ll likely cover for us, or get switched onto, will fall into that bucket.
Off Ball
Thematically, we run into the same discussion points here, but the key difference is that away from the ball, Harmon has good opportunity to see the play develop. He has good awareness and a sense of where he needs to be on the floor.
Here’s a nice look against St. Mary’s that’s a very good example of standard Harmon off the ball stuff. They’re in man-to-man here and he’s active and aware, taking responsibility for team defense rather than just his own man. He starts off by being physical with his man on the wing, then does a nice job of rotating over to tag the diver on the slip screen. He doesn’t simply tag and recover, though, he lingers on the back side so that when the recovering big on his team stays to help defend the drive, Harmon is able to pinch down in front of the opposing Center, denying him an opportunity to take a pass. Probably my favorite part of this look is that Harmon takes a full forearm shiver to the back which knocks him off balance, but still has the awareness as he recovers to identify that his man is starting to cut into the lane and still gets out in front to deny a potential pass and then recovers out to the wing to defend the ball again.
That’s a good personality clip, if you ask me. Sometimes on the tape there are plays where you feel like you get to know a player’s mentality a little bit. There’s a determination here that you want to see in your guys, along with a good understanding of the game. He wouldn’t get back out into that passing lane on the cutter after getting shoved under the basket if he didn’t have a keen awareness as to where his man could be a threat despite fronting the big. Good stuff here.
Okay, this next one isn’t on the same level – but it’s still good awareness to slide down from the corner, cleanly pick up the deflection, and immediately trigger the outlet pass.
Sometimes these sections merge together, and this is a good look at where he can add value in transition, as well, as that pass is what created the one-on-one opportunity and had to happen then.
This one is better, and you can see his ability to read where the ball is going – and this is late in the game, wanting a stop while up 4 points. He and his teammate proactively switch when their men cross away from the ball, keeping Harmon at the top of the key. When the ball goes low on the opposite site, though, Harmon has his eyes on the play correctly anticipates that the easier and more dangerous pass will go to the wing, slides over and picks it off.
This is another good example, below, this time starting from the wing area rather than low. He starts by leaning into the prospective ball screen and getting through it pretty easily. When his teammate is beaten by the shot fake, I like his retreat angle into the lane to cut off the drive, switching onto the man in the process. The next part of this, and my favorite, is more subtle, though. As he’s supporting the drive, his teammates rotate to help, with 6’7″ Jalen Hampton (#12) leaving his man to step up to support Harmon on the drive, and then sprinting out to the corner to help on the defensive rotation. Harmon could have immediately sprinted back to the player he switched onto, but instead, he stays equidistant between Hampton’s man and his own, covering the rotation so that he can move to either man if they receive the follow up pass. He waits for Hampton’s man to clear, and then steps up to defend his own when the pass comes – actually causing him to retreat back up to the free throw line on his dribble prior to getting his pass off.
That’s someone who understands the game and can quickly figure out where he needs to be to reduce threat levels. It would have been really easy not to see the second man there and to instinctually close out on his own after the drive. He switched onto him, after all, and he was clearly a next pass option. Instead, he wasn’t even tempted because he understood immediately that he needed to stay home in space from a team defense perspective. I really like that awareness. I’ve talked previously about how, when he’s got the right players and experience, Coach Odom likes to let his guards be aggressive and take chances trying to create turnovers. It creates chaos and disruption and is typically anchored by good rim protection and smart help defense and rotations from his supporting guards. I see that ability in Christian Harmon.
Okay, another thing I appreciate about this element of his game is that, when he’s on time with his rotations, he’s got a nice feel at contesting perimeter shots. He gets into the shooter’s space without fouling. Here’s a good look where he jockeys between supporting the paint and then gets there on the close out. He’s under control this time and the contest is very tight but he still peels off to the side so as not to allow for any contact.
This next one, below, puts the two points from above together re: alertness and close out. For contest, the shooter is the 5’11” Tyren Moore, who absolutely went crazy this game for 25 points. Harmon starts off of the ball and sags into the lane on the drive. It’s one of the few times he momentarily ends up with his back completely to the ball, which I don’t love, but he corrects it pretty quickly as the drive gets down the lane. As his teammate drops down for help, Harmon splits the difference between his man and Moore and starts to move toward Moore. There’s a brief moment of confusion as Moore’s original man recovers to decide who should move out to him, but Harmon pretty quickly takes the responsibility, and slides around the pick. Along with the closing big on his team, the two provide a very solid double-contest on the shot with Moore actually fading farther into the corner, enough to bring the fear of hitting the side of the backboard into play.
Yes, it’s really nice shot-making from a red-hot player. Perhaps there was opportunity to communicate even better or to identify what a threat Moore was and be more aggressive with his decision early on. Still, I think it’s a very good contest while getting around a screen, invading space without making contact. Moore would have felt pinched then enough such that many shooters would flinch in that situation.
This last look at this makes me smile because it’s so rambunctious. Firstly, before that, look at that score and time and note that South Alabama won this game. But after the kick out after the initial missed shot, watch Harmon attack this close out. It’s with two hands, flying right across the shooter, across his eyes, attacking the shooting hand. He flies by, though, without making ant contact, and he absolutely forces the miss.
Now, if his teammate had looked up, that’d have been an easy outlet pass for a score. Perhaps you prefer he not get so far out of the play in case of a long rebound. Still – I think the spatial feel and aggressiveness here is notable.
In the “On Ball” section, I talked about how his ability to body guys can throw them off their game. That also applies to defensive rotations and standing up to drives in the lane. Check out his defense on this offensive set, in OT, now down two. He’s guarding Olsen (#12) again and this time South Alabama attempt to use a deep Spain screen (ball screen followed by Olsen back screening the Arkansas St. Center) to create a driving lane. Olsen typically then pops to the outside (as you see him do in this play). Harmon diagnoses it immediately, though, and when 6’6″ Chaze Harris (#2) drives down the lane, Christian peels off of Olsen, steps into fantastic defensive position, and goes straight up. Harris has enough momentum built up that he attempts the shot anyway, but the contact causes him to bounce off of Harmon and miss at close range.
That’s really good technique, diagnosis, and strength from Harmon to be in the perfect position to play spoiler on a nice design.
Finally, while Harmon only averaged .9 steals per game – nothing eye-popping – I did like how he played the game with anticipation and opportunism at times. This is a great example of him noticing that his man wasn’t far enough up the court to be dangerous yet, seeing the ball handler playing a little out of control, and taking the opportunity to pounce on the dribble.
There was a main trailing the play so this couldn’t have been an easy bucket the other way, but you can easily see how it could have been had the rest of Georgia Southern been up the floor.
I don’t have a ton of defensive rebounding clips to share, just this one. He averaged a solid 3.7 per game for a guard – although he often played lower in their zone and coverages.
I’d say that he’s not afraid to, and is good at, putting a body on a guy – playing physically to keep them away from the glass:
He’s also lacking the stand-still vertical to be able to go and get the ball when taller players have good rebounding position; which can often lead to situations where he plays good rotational defense like in this clip below, but he just can’t quite do enough to help keep the big off the glass.
He’s likely going to be playing SG more than SF even, so this probably won’t be a credible fault of his. I wouldn’t have expected Jacari White to be able to stand there and get the ball over the 7’2″ Andrew McKeever (#45) either! Really, that’s a tall order for any player in the country. BUT, at 6’6″ and as someone who will likely be playing SOME SF, it’s worth noting when considering his overall game. This kind of scenario above wasn’t JUST limited to trying to contest 7(+)-foot giants. Main takeaway, he’s going to get most of his rebounds by reading the ball well and going after it, or fighting strong and low to keep his man out of rebounding position – not swooping in and out-jumping a bunch of guys.
The biggest issue with this part of his game is kind of the same as the previous section – sometimes his lateral quickness and burst aren’t quite where they need to be which is especially impactful on close outs, breaking on the ball from a standstill, and change of recovery angles.
Here’s a first clip, below, that I think gives a pretty decent look at all of the above. He’s the wing in an extended 2-3 zone here and his primary focus initially is getting wide to keep that pass from going to the corner. He does a nice job as you see him keep switching from showing on the ball to then fanning out wide once his man recovers. As the ball rotates away, though, it gets kicked back out to his side where he has to rotate up near the point to support the two guards who got sucked into the lane. As you see him closing out, when the offensive player starts moving to his left (Harmon’s right), Christian has to sort of throttle down because his closeout angle was gearing too far to the left. The instability of it reminds me a little of when someone hasn’t properly swept the floor and you’re sliding on the dust a little bit; not quite having proper footing. Then he has to turn and try to race to the corner for the closeout, but he’s just not able to get into gear quickly enough with all of that change of direction.
This next look, below, is similar with the footing and reminiscent of the first defensive section. At 9 seconds into the clip, he switches onto Mikey Lewis (#0) proactively, which is good. He’s got a nice amount of space between the screener and ball handler that he can cut through, but he just loses the angle on the recovery and ends up trailing. Then after the help allows him to get back to his, he falls asleep on the driver and doesn’t step up help.
The second part of that play was really uncharacteristic of him, for the record. He rarely was caught sleeping on a help opportunity like this, as we saw earlier. That wide rounding of the screen, though, and almost slippery recovery when cutting that angle was not uncommon, though.
Here’s another look. This time he’s helping on the drive and has to turn and close out in the corner. Again, though, his close out angle and change of direction can’t get over to that driving angle on the baseline.
He’s caught between a rock and a hard place there because he either has to close out like this to try to impact the shot, or he’s got to close out at a softer angle and risk being shot over. It’s just not having that quick break down and slide to adjust to the drive attempt.
Here’s another look at it – giving up the driving lane because of the slower closeout:
I don’t think that one was fully quickness, though, although that as part of it – I think he thought the man in that area was still higher up and started to recover to the wrong spot prior to realizing that he’d gotten more depth.
And this next one is one that you really can’t have because the help he’s providing away from the ball is useful to discourage a driving lane, but it’s pretty far away from the hoop and with drop coverage help behind. You can’t lurk in the lane if you are going to concede that driving lane on the recovery.
Candidly, if you’re getting blown by on the perimeter like that, it needs to come off of some serious scramble and rotations where the defense made you work. It can’t come from showing just a bit of help and not giving the threat of your own man driving the concern it deserves.
It is a bit of a tightrope for Harmon, though, because when he’s not playing that closeout so aggressively and is getting caught deeper in the lane helping out, his acceleration to the contest can suffer as well like in this clip below:
Or, probably more obviously, here:
To me, this is going to tell so much of the story for Harmon this coming season. To use a football analogy, if he can shave a little time off of his cone drill (while working on his handle while doing it)… that will go a long way toward helping almost all elements of his game.
This last clip in this section, below, was his “Welcome to the ACC” moment before he knew he would be coming to the ACC:
But, seriously, though… these are the level of athletes that he’s going to be facing at this level, so how will he adjust his game so that he can compete with that while bringing all of the many, many positive elements to the floor? He’s got the build AND the skill for it – he’s just got to grind to level up the rest.
In Conclusion
Christian Harmon is one of the more interesting players to keep an eye on this season because I believe there are a wide range of possible outcomes for him in a crowded backcourt. The strengths of his game are so valuable. I think that his shot will translate no matter what – and that he should be one of our most confident shooters, on a team full of good shooters, who can get it a variety of ways from all over the floor. The mental side of his game should thrive in a situation where virtually everyone on the floor with him are talented threats in their own right. His presence will give them space and take some of the pressure off of them and he’ll regularly just make the correct play and take what the defense gives. Additionally, I think there’s a real chance that he’ll find some of the sledding easier on that end with a team full of guys who are taking the pressure off of him to be the guy. I imagine there will be some games here he pours in waves of buckets with little conscience. Not to mention, with the exception of Chance, our team is going to be huge. Harmon’s size, strength, and ability to play cross-positionally at either the 2 or 3 will further bolster that; especially when he’s at the 2 – and will be one of many more options Coach Odom has at his finger tips this season to play with lineup versatility.
But, while I don’t see a world in which we wouldn’t be pleased with the offensive side of his game, there are ranges to how impactful he will be there and there is some real risk to the defensive side. Malik Thomas’s playing time was genuinely reduced because of the defensive side of the ball throughout much of last season despite his offensive contributions. This was mostly because of that first step and need to switch guard-to-guard screens (although there was also an element of learning the defensive system and expectation there that I don’t think will be a challenge for Harmon). Granted, Harmon is bigger and stronger than Thomas was (and Thomas was strong), but some of their challenges on that side could be shared.
I think you could see a world this season where Harmon is still in the rotation, but more toward the back end. This would be a scenario where he becomes a noticeable place opposing teams can try to target through ball screens (and if the Autry zone murmurings don’t amount to much more than a rare change of pace). Maybe Lewis and Adekunle play more together, maybe Anya gets used as a SF even sometimes in that world. We’re likely going to have some really nice defensive lineups and options to cycle in. BUT, I could also absolutely see Harmon being a rotation staple playing well over 20mpg, having fans discuss whether he should be starting… potentially even pushing to crack that lineup. It won’t take him suddenly gaining the quick-twitch reflexes of Chance or Eli – all it will take is him shaving just a little time off of that shuttle. Reducing the frequency of those defensive moments such that he can more regularly stay attached to, and latch onto, his man such that he can funnel them into our shot blocking and other aggressive help. Increasing the frequency with which he punishes reckless close outs by putting the ball on the floor and getting all the way to the rim. Just enough of a tilt in that direction, and now you’re talking about a significant ceiling to what he could bring when you consider all of the positives.
And here’s the thing… it’s absolutely achievable and realistic. This isn’t like saying a guy needs to improve his outside shot by 10% and expecting that to happen over an offseason. Sure, you’ll get a Justin Anderson goes to Chicago glow up every once in a while, but that’s usually something that takes much more time. Harmon is already a deadly shooter who I strongly believe will show that this season. It’s not expecting him to put on 50-60lbs of muscle like Jay Huff did over many offseasons. Harmon is already a brick wall. The areas that often take players the longest to improve are already strengths of his. It’s simply saying that just modest gains to his agility with an offseason of training could go a long way – and it looks like he’s already been in the lab working on it – which is very encouraging, dare I say, exciting.
Christian Harmon signing this season offers us another really nice depth piece with potential to make an even bigger impact than that in year one. That potential is why I’m harping so much on the opportunity for improvement – because it’s all right there in front of him and offers us an opportunity to have struck gold on another mid-major pick up. We know that UVa is deep into their analytics firm looking for guys they believe hold more potential than is obvious. I really think that fits the bill here. It’s going to be an iron-sharpens-iron kind of situation against his teammates in what will likely be about as open and true of a competition for minutes as I can remember in a deep rotation.
That being said, the 5-in-5 ruling means that he has two years of eligibility with us. Given how highly I think of his potential, that’s even more exciting. His year‑one story is still unwritten, and there are a lot of ways it could break – I’ve laid out plenty of them. I’m optimistic and hopeful, but also watchful. There’s a lot of competition on this roster. Still, by the time we get to year two (I’m always going to assume every player we sign stays for the purposes of their analysis and given our one-year track record), I fully expect we’ll be talking about him as a success and a leader in this program. His skills, his mindset, his approach – I wouldn’t bet against any of it. I will absolutely be hoping that he’s ahead of that schedule, though. As we get to the early season scrimmages (in September now!), watch how he’s moving both with and without the ball. That will be the most informative thing to help project, in my opinion. I’m really looking forward to it!
Alright! That wraps up our second player breakdown this offseason. As mentioned in an earlier piece, I won’t be doing Anya this year. Next will be Jan Vide, the ostensible backup PG from Loyola Marymount (by way of Slovenia), and then we will wrap up by dipping fully into international tape with Nolan Adekunle. Until then!
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