Juke Harris: Box Score Hero | Prospect Spotlight
Stephen Gillaspie breaks down one of the 2026 NBA Draft Class breakouts, Juke Harris!
This class has been full of surprises to start this cycle off. Some highly touted freshman prospects in the 2026 NBA Draft class have…not been what we were expecting. Some freshmen who weren’t held in high regard are already making lottery or first round cases. Some returners have been what we expected, but yet some who had incredibly modest freshman seasons have been producing at a high level.
Some prospects have been doing so in the shadows. That’s what will take us to today’s featured prospect, Juke Harris.
Juke Harris is a sophomore playing for Wake Forest. As a freshman, Juke played a more modest role for the Demon Deacons, playing 19 MPG in the 31 games he played for the team. He even made one start. Over his first season, Harris averaged 6.1 PPG and 2.8 RPG—with shooting splits of 43/30/60. As a 6’7”, 200-pound perimeter player, Juke flashed moments of top-tier athleticism, a handle, and touch. After an offseason to work on his game, Juke has become one of the best and most improved prospects in the country.
The Crunch
One of my favorite things to do is to compare the production of players against their peers, and against some of the players who have played college hoops—who have gone on to have success in the NBA. Let’s take a look at the foundation Harris has set at this point of the season:
Minutes Percentage - 73.9
BPM - 9.9
Offensive Rating - 125.4
Usage Percentage - 26.5
Effective Field Goal Percentage - 62.1
True Shooting Percentage - 65.8
Offensive Rebounding Percentage - 6.9
Defensive Rebounding Percentage - 18.9
Assist Percentage - 9.8
Turnover Percentage - 14.6
Assist:Turnover- 0.7
Block Percentage - 0.9
Steals Percentage - 2.9
Free Throw Rate - 56.5
Dunks - 6
Two Point Percentage - 63.3 (38/60)
Three Point Percentage - 40.6 (26/64)
Some of the numbers that Juke has put up this season are flat-out ridiculous. As it stands, he is one of just seven players who have the following:
Usage Percentage - At Least 25
Offensive Rating - At least 125
Box Score - At least 9
Three Point Percentage - At least 40%
You can narrow that group down by players who have taken at least 50 three-point attempts, and you get a list of three players: Tavari Johnson of Akron, Ryan Conwell, and Juke Harris.
When you take what Juke does on the boards and on defense into consideration, he is actually pretty unique to the rest of the class. He is the only one in this class to record the following:
Usage Percentage - At least 25
Offensive Rebounding Percentage - At least 5
Defensive Rebounding Percentage - At least 15
Assist Percentage - At least 7
Steals Percentage - At least 2
Three Point Percentage - At least 40%
BPM- At least 9
Comparing him against the Bart Torvik database, only 10 players have recorded a season with those metrics. That list includes Josh Hart, David Roddy, Brandin Podziemski, and Jared Sullinger.
The Dive
The numbers are pretty fun with Juke, but he really stands out on the film. When you look at where he ranks on Synergy on all offensive possessions, Harris grades out in the 90th Percentile in the nation—averaging 1.169 points per possession. His ability to consistently and reliably space the floor for Wake has been something special, and he has been solid finishing at the basket.
Shooting
I want to start off by showing that Juke isn’t “simply” just parking in a corner and hitting stand-still jumpers. This clip shows how Wake Forest will utilize Juke off of movement to convert from deep.
The ball starts at the top of the key, and then gets worked to the left side of the court. Juke (#2 in black) is on the opposite side of the floor, and waits patiently for two things. First, Nate Calmese (#1 in black) goes into a fake screen, and then dives to the rim. This keeps the defense honest to the action to the basket, which allows for the down screen to be set for our guy.
Juke runs off the screen, catches the ball toward the top of the key, and knocks down the three.
Of course, Harris can hit shots standing in one spot. Per Synergy, our guy ranks in the 84th percentile in Catch-and-Shoot opportunities. When he is left open, he ranks in the 88th percentile. Clips like this show why.
Nothing here that requires fancy words or over-the-top analysis. We see the ball being advanced to the rim, and then it is kicked back out to the opposite side wing. The defense is in a state of recovery, which works out perfectly for Juke, as the back is swung to him—as he is staggered to the left key. Harris catches the ball, squares up, and gets the shot off quickly. Easy money.
Now, there are some areas of improvement for Juke as a shooter. Primarily, he has room to grow shooting off the bounce. His numbers in this category aren’t great, as Juke ranks in the 12th percentile shooting off the bounce. He also doesn’t really look to do this often, as indicated by his 0th percentile ranking in frequency shooting off the dribble.
I want to preface this by saying that some of his seven missed dribble jumper threes were him being tossed grenades—shots that are forced due to time instead of being a clean look. Still, this clip above does show how his mechanics can complicate his shot once he opts to pull up.
We see Juke dribbling the ball, utilizing a screen twice. Once Juke goes right off the screen, he goes into his pull-up. You can see that there is still a natural dip on the shot before he comes up after the dribble. The time it takes for Harris to start his shot allows the defense to converge on him and apply pressure.
Last season, Juke only took four three-pointers off the dribble, making just one. Juke has improved drastically as an overall shooter, but this will be the next step in his development.
Finishing
When it comes to at-rim finishing, Juke has shown a real knack for converting around the basket. Last season, Harris finished in the 55th percentile in both scoring efficiency and frequency at the rim. So far this year, he ranks in the 59th percentile in finishing at the rim. Since he has improved so much as a shooter, Juke’s rim frequency has taken a dip to the 39th percentile.
This set that Wake runs isn’t too dissimilar to that movement shot we look at from Juke earlier. This clip shows our guy coming off a down screen on the left side of the court, and gets the ball moving to the top of the key. Juke comes off the ball screen and sees a driving lane.
Harris does something interesting here. Instead of gathering the ball off the dribble into a hop-step or euro, Juke drives right into the help defender on the block. Harris goes right into the defender and trusts his length and leaping ability to finish over the top of the defender while getting a trip to the free-throw line.
Juke leads his team in scoring by about 60 points—in large part because he also leads the Deacons in And-One with 10. The second most on the team is two.
Juke shows some nifty craft around the rim too, which shows that he isn’t just a straight-line finisher. In this clip against Oklahoma, we see Harris bring the ball up the floor in a semi-transition look. Juke gives some slight hesitation on the left wing, which attracts the defense’s attention.
Harris accelerates to the rim and takes a little power dribble. Juke has the athleticism, verticality, and body control to go up for the shot and double-clutch the ball before he releases his shot. Again, we see how Juke is able to draw contact and finish through the contact for an opportunity for another point at the free throw line—where he is converting almost 76% of his looks.
I’ll preface this clip by stating that this is the only halfcourt dunk that Juke has registered on the season so far. It’s still impressive, though, and he has shown a degree of athleticism to this point that suggests this possession is likely not an oddity.
Wake Forest spams this set a lot, don’t they? But—if you can run different looks from the set with some success—why shake things up? Harris starts this clip off on the left side of the floor, working his way center. Instead of continuing to the top of the key, Juke makes a hairpin turn off the screen set for him and dives to the basket.
Juke gets the ball in the middle of the paint and decides to go off of two feet for a two-handed jam over the help. Clearly and understandably, Harris is immensely excited after that play.
Again, while Harris hasn’t done this often in the halfcourt, he has made 7-of-9 total dunk attempts on the season.
Defense
The defensive prowess of Juke Harris has been one of the more interesting aspects of his game. He has the athletic ability to be a tremendous defender. That’s not to say that he hasn’t been good, but there feels like there is some untapped and underlying potential for Harris to be special on that end of the floor.
In this clip, he has the chance to see how instinctive and quick Juke can be to make a play on the ball. Texas Tech’s JT Toppin (#15 in white) begins this possession getting the ball at the top of the key. Harris understands that Toppin has the strength advantage over him, so he has to find the right way to mitigate that advantage.
Once Juke sees that JT is going into his dribble, he closes the space between them. This allows him to prevent Toppin from “powering up” on him and driving through him. Harris waits until Toppin crosses over to his left, and then he strikes. Juke pokes the ball loose, which forces a turnover and a fast break opportunity.
Harris has recorded a Steal Percentage of 2.9 on the season to this point, which makes sense once you see the sort of plays he can make on the ball or in passing lanes.
In terms of defensive playmaking, it’s worth mentioning that Juke only has two blocks on the season, but he has the potential to do more as a shot-blocker.
In this clip against Morehead State, the ball is going to start out on the left wing. The action the offense results in an entry pass being thrown on the block. As the ball handler is dribbling to the block, he delivers a bounce pass to the opposite block.
Juke sees the ball being moved and starts working his way to help. The ball handler maneuvers his way toward the paint, which sets him up for a left-handed hook. Unbeknownst to the offensive player, Juke is in prime position to reject the shot attempt before it stands a chance to go in. It’s plays like these where you can get a little starry-eyed in projecting how impactful he could be in contesting and blocking shots. With how his offensive game is developing, it’s hard to not get excited about Juke Harris could grow as the season goes on.
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should be a first rounder in next year's draft
great to see a leap in production