With the Memphis Grizzlies’ season kicking off in late October, that also means the return of their D-League affiliate, the Iowa Energy. Last year, three players—James Ennis, Russ Smith and Jarell Martin—played minutes with the Grizzlies after excelling with the Energy. In a series of analyses, we’ll go through the roster in an attempt to decipher who has the greatest chance to earn a call-up to the NBA in 2016-2017.
Andrew Harrison, Guard
Taken by the Phoenix Suns 44th in 2015, Andrew Harrison was then subsequently traded to the Grizzlies for Jon Leuer. Harrison, 21, has had a much harder time in professional basketball than expected.
Harrison, at the start of the 2013-2014 college season, was classed as the best point guard in the upcoming draft and was a high school All-American. However, two rough seasons under John Calipari at Kentucky showed that those expectations were unrealistic, and thus, landed him in the second round.
In college, Harrison never lived up to the hype, averaging 10.1 points per game, 3.8 assists and 2.7 rebounds in just over 28 minutes of action under Calipari. Dubbed Calipari’s next best point guard (following in the footsteps of John Wall, and Marquis Teague), Harrison became more like Teague rather than the two all-stars. He played with NBA players such as Karl-Anthony Towns, Julius Randle, Devin Booker and Willie-Cauley Stein and was hyped to be the best of the bunch.
Harrison already has 46 games under his belt for Iowa Energy playing starter minutes (35 mpg), and putting up good stats. However, Harrison again saw problems in his game that saw him have 148 turnovers, the fourth-highest in the D-League.
2015-2016 D-League stats: 46 games, 35.3mpg, 18.5ppg, 4.3rpg, 4.9apg, 1.5spg, 0.5bpg, 3.2topg, 17.1 PER, .437 FG%, .365 3PT%, .783 FT%
NBA stats: N/A
Odds of receiving a call-up?
If there’s two things the Memphis Grizzlies need right now and have for many years is penetration and 3-point shooting from the guard position. Harrison provides both of these. In the D-League last year, he was fourth in the league with free throws made and attempted, a good stat to show his penetration abilities. He also shot 4.5 3-pointers a game, making 1.7, a huge need for the Grizzlies at the moment. His value over replacement player last year was 3.3, by far the highest number on the Energy according to basketball-reference.com.
He also has youth on his side. Being 21 and not turning 22 until October, Harrison still has the chance to hit the potential he was projected to have coming out of high school, or even a percentage of that potential. He regressed in college, but that can also be down to Calipari’s insanely deep teams that never let a player get in rhythm, let alone a proper point guard. Even if he doesn’t hit his potential, if he hits a portion of that potential, that’s still a serviceable third point guard to maybe even a heckuva backup.
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Being 6’6” is also a good advantage for Harrison. He can slide over to the two when needed and play off-ball where he can shoot the three or play in small-ball scenarios as a secondary ball-handler.
If Harrison can get over his ball-handling abilities and play with a higher basketball IQ, he could see some call-ups to the Grizzlies throughout the season if the inevitable injury bug kicks in. If he can smarten up, we could see Harrison hit his potential as a combo-guard who can consistently hit the 3 -ball.
The overall outlook? Don’t be surprised to see Andrew Harrison suit up in the FedEx Forum this year, but do keep an eye on how the young stud handles playing at the highest level.