{"id":693463,"date":"2026-06-09T12:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693463\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:33:08","slug":"we-know-that-he-can-be-a-star-at-this-level-dwyane-wade-marvels-at-dylan-harpers-surprising-impact-early-on-the-spurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693463\/","title":{"rendered":"“We know that he can be a star at this level” – Dwyane Wade marvels at Dylan Harper’s surprising impact early on the Spurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Antonio Spurs<\/a> guard Dylan Harper<\/a> did not get the same amount of buzz as the other top rookies in this year’s class. Harper, however, has stayed the course and shown the special player that he is as the season progressed.<\/p>\n

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft has strung up quite an impressive body of work in his first year in the league. It has continued in the ongoing NBA Finals, where the Spurs are currently battling the New York Knicks<\/a> and are looking to win their sixth championship.<\/p>\n

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A really good basketball player<\/p>\n

Harper’s standout play has not gone unnoticed by NBA great and Basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade<\/a>, who has marveled at the maturity the former Rutgers darling has shown in handling his business.<\/p>\n

D-Wade shared his thoughts on the 20-year-old Spurs guard on his podcast, highlighting how the latter has done a solid job at the role he has found himself in and how his upside is still tremendous.<\/p>\n

“I think we all know that they drafted him to be a part of the future and he looks like he’s ready, but also at the same time because of the role that he’s in, it allows for him to be as good as he is right now. Dylan Harper’s really good at basketball. He’s been really good,”\u00a0the three-time NBA champion\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Harper played 64 games in the regular season for the Spurs as the primary backup to starting point guard De’Aaron Fox. He did his role with utmost patience and the needed work to great results, averaging 11.8 points and 3.9 assists in 23 minutes per game while helping his team find fluidity from the bench.<\/p>\n

It is this confidence in Harper to take on what is asked of him that has made Wade a fan of his.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure he wanted to play more in the beginning of the season. I’m sure he wanted to be in the Rookie of the Year conversation with the other guys\u2026 But we know that he can be a star at this level. We don’t have to wait and see. We don’t have to wait three, four, five years with hopes,”\u00a0Wade pointed out about what Harper has done in just a short time.<\/p>\n

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Related: Former NBA sixth man turned billionaire got brutal on friends asking for money: “I wish I had a nickel for every nickel I loaned out when I was playing”<\/a><\/p>\n

Playoff Harper<\/p>\n

Harper has continued to roll well into his first NBA playoffs, maintaining his standing as a key piece in the Spurs’ rotation. The son of former NBA champion Ron Harper has posted averages of 13.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.2 steals while shooting 52.7 percent from the field in the 20 games leading up to Game 3 of the Finals in New York on Monday.<\/p>\n

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In Game 3, Harper once again showed up for the Spurs, who took the game, 115-111, to narrow their series deficit to 1-2. He came off the bench and played 32 minutes to chalk up near double-double numbers of 13 points and nine rebounds to go along with four assists.<\/p>\n

Harper’s play aligned with the pronouncement he made after they went down, 0-2, to the Knicks, stressing the need for them to play with a sense of urgency.<\/p>\n

“Desperation. I think for me, I feel like I’m at my best when I play with that type of desperation, and I think that’s what’s kind of needed for this occasion. I feel like I’m going to go out there and no matter what the circumstances, I think if I’m not playing with that type of fire or grit, I’m doing a disservice to everyone,”\u00a0Harper\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0media day ahead of Game 3.<\/p>\n

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Harper did not get the hype he seemingly deserved early on in the season, but he is having the last laugh with the attention he is getting at the grandest stage in the NBA. What is even scarier is that he is just starting and poised for greater things ahead.<\/p>\n

Related: “A great player in shock” – Kenny Smith compares faltering Wembanyama to Nick Anderson<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jun 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper did not get the same amount of buzz as the other top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[171151,38388,49952,355,5489,13331,361,94056,2116,99,60950],"class_list":["post-693463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-de39aaron-fox","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-dylan-harper","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-ron-harper","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-the-spurs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}