Draft Profile: Tyler Harvey

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By Taylor C. Snow

If you glanced at the NCAA statistical leaderboards this past season, chances are you came across Tyler Harvey’s name a couple of times. The pure scorer led the nation in points per game (23.0) and 3-pointers (128). What makes his journey remarkable is the fact that a few years ago, Harvey was essentially a nobody in the basketball world. He was unrecruited out of high school, walked on at Eastern Washington University and redshirted his freshman season. Now he's in the conversation of being a potential first-rounder.

Tyler Harvey mainly brings one thing to the court: scoring. Harvey, who led the nation this past season with an average of 23.0 points per game, is a true weapon on offense. He excelled against his toughest competition this past season. Though he settled quite a bit – he attempted a ridiculous 9.3 3-pointers per game – he has the ability to score in a variety of ways. He can make shots off of pin-downs, pull-ups, spot-ups and step-backs. He prefers step-backs while going to his right and pull-ups while going to his left. He’s fully capable of scoring off of the dribble and off of the catch. He’s a lefty who’s got a quick release and a very nice handle with both hands. He’s got a quick first step and is strong with the ball – much more so than you’d expect given his size – when taking it off of the dribble. He powers through contact and rarely gets knocked off of his path. He’s no Derrick Rose, but think of the way Rose fights through contact on the way to the rim. At times, Harvey displays solid vision and passing abilities. However, his role during college was to score, not to distribute and create for others. When he touched the ball he mainly had one thing in mind, and that was to put the ball through the basket. He’s going to need to develop his point guard skills as he enters the league in order to secure more opportunities to play. He’s only 6-foot-4 in sneakers, so playing full-time as a shooting guard – without great defensive abilities – will be tough. Defensively, not a whole lot stands out. I wouldn’t call him a liability, but I wouldn’t call him an asset, either. He has solid foot speed and lateral quickness, but he must learn how to chase opposing guards and fight through screens. He was swallowed up by screens this past season, and if he’s going to play shooting guard in the NBA, he’s going to be chasing opposing players around screens all game long. I don’t read much into his poor shooting performance at the Combine (5-of-22 FGs, 4-of-15 3FGs). He can shoot the rock. But I do have concerns regarding his ability to handle the 2-guard position in the NBA, and if he can run an offense as a point guard. He is a student of the game and was an academic All-American who disassociated himself from all things negative.

By Taylor C. Snow

Harvey was born on July 17, 1993 in Torrance Calif. to Frank Harvey – a collegiate basketball referee – and Susan Raya. He entered Bishop Montgomery High School as a 5-foot-4 scrawny teenager with a dream to play basketball. When his sophomore season rolled around, he had shot up over six feet; he quickly became the cornerstone of the Knights’ basketball and his dream suddenly seemed more attainable. During his senior year, he averaged 18 points and three steals per game, earning all-area honors. Harvey was unrecruited out of high school, so he walked on at Eastern Washington University in 2011 and redshirted his freshman season. He began seeing significant playing time during the 2013-14 campaign, as he led the Big Sky in scoring with 21.8 points per game and netted a school-record 109 3-pointers. That year, his free throw percentage leapt from 43.4 percent to 89.7 percent, highlighted by a 20-of-20 performance at the charity stripe against Southern Utah. During his junior season, he led the NCAA in scoring (23.1 points per game) and made a nation-leading and Big Sky-record 128 3-pointers. Harvey led the Eagles to the second round of the NCAA tournament, but they succumbed to Georgetown, 84-74. During that final game, he scored 27 points, surpassing NBA vet Rodney Stuckey for the Eastern Washington single season scoring record, finishing the year with 738 points. Harvey declared for the NBA Draft on April 1.