Sports

Dylan Harper Tagged to Go Second in the NBA Draft
By James Moreau | 25 Jun, 2025

Filipino American Dylan Harper looks forward to a pro career as distinguished as his basketball lineage.

Rutgers’ combo guard Dylan Harper is the consensus number two pick for the 2025 NBA Draft, behind only Duke’s Cooper Flagg.

The second pick is held by the San Antonio Spurs.  That means Harper will likely play alongside 7’4” All-Star Center Victor Wembanyama – one of the NBA’s most exciting players and its back-to-back blocking leader.

Drafting 19-year-old Harper would also create an exciting backcourt pairing with point guard Stephon Castle who in April succeeded Wembanyama as Rookie of the Year.  Harper and Castle both stand 6-6, providing excellent size at the guard positions.

During his single season at Rutgers Harper averaged 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.  In 29 games he was a solid defender, picking up 1.4 steals and over half a block per game.  He was teammates with another shoo-in lottery pick, Ace Bailey.  But the Scarlet Knights struggled, ending the season with a 15-17 record.  Both were true freshman but both earned Third-team All-Big Ten honors.  

Both Harper and Bailey had been 5-Star McDonald’s All-Americans coming out of high school and were part the highest-ranked recruiting class in Rutgers history.

A native of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, Harper averaged over 22 points and 5 rebounds per game his senior year at Don Bosco Prep where his mother Maria is an assistant coach.  He represented USA Basketball at the 2023 FIBA U19 World Cup, averaging 5.3 points and 3 assists per game against top global competition. 

His father Ron Harper had a 15-season NBA career with five championships – three with the Chicago Bulls and two with the Los Angeles Lakers.  Older brother Ron Harper Jr. also played at Rutgers before entering the NBA where he currently plays for the Detroit Pistons after going undrafted in 2022. Dylan’s mother Maria played college basketball for the University of New Orleans after immigrating to the U.S. from Bataan, Philippines at the age of 7.  Harper’s grandfather Manuel Pizarro represented the Philippines in jai alai at the 1968 Summer Olympics.