If Giannis Antetokounmpo eventually leaves the [Milwaukee Bucks](https://fansided.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/), he could do so having elevated the franchise not just to a championship, but potentially setting it up for life after him. It’s a strange twist, the idea that his departure could be a parting gift rather than a gut punch, but in a league that rewards vision over sentiment, the Bucks have to prepare for the possibility.
That’s where San Antonio comes in. There have been several rounds of discussion about who Jon Horst could draft if the Bucks wrangle the No. 2 overall pick out of San Antonio. The trade makes too much sense for both teams not to be in touch. The framework has circulated through backchannels and group chats for weeks. This draft is teeming with guard talent, a position San Antonio is already deep at with Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox. The best-case scenario would have them filling a crowded backcourt and down the line trading one of them for a lesser player than Antetokounmpo.
Should it materialize, the most pressing question becomes: Who is the player you entrust with the keys to a post-Giannis world?
The answer might be Dylan Harper.
Why Dylan Harper makes the most sense for the Bucks' future
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The Scarlet Knights guard worms through defenses with ball handling, footwork, and a bag that is advanced well beyond his years. The Rutgers freshman has a game that looks like it was downloaded from 2032. He’s a slithery, calculating scorer with a patient dribble package. Throughout his freshman year, Harper demonstrated an ability to diagnose defenses and sliced through them with surgical precision. At 6-6, he’s Harden-like in crafting innovative moves to get his defender out of position and then slithering to the rim.
If the Bucks are in desperate need of a player to begin their rebuild around, Harper has the most unique upside. His deceleration ability and visionary passing could be the bedrock for a truly special player.
His game is poetry written in source code. Some of the greatest offensive playmakers don’t just rely on their athleticism to fly past defenses and wreak havoc. They manipulate the next level of defensive help with their eyes and anticipation. Harper is a playmaking virtuoso.
Tre Johnson is the purest scorer, but Harper maximizes the entire offense with his traits as a distributor. It’s too bad he played off-Broadway at Rutgers instead of showcasing his talents alongside better teammates.
Defenses operate on pattern recognition. They read the ball, anticipate help, and cut off lanes. Harper scrambles those protocols. Defenders tend to follow behavioral patterns to stop ball handlers and close passing lanes. Harper operates like a black-hat hacker in sneakers with the rock in his possession.
Harper doesn’t just get his own, he unlocks others. His penetration dribble moves are so offbeat, they seem glitchy to defenses. His shooting off the dribble could use improvement, but the DNA of a three-level scorer is there. He just needs to refine the rough edges.
However, his flaws are more fixable than those of any other top-five prospect. Ace Bailey, for instance, is an electric scorer with spring-loaded hops, but his decision-making and feel for the game are raw. Bailey shot just 69.2 percent from the free-throw line and checked in at only 6-foot-7 without shoes at the combine. For a ball-dominant guard who isn't in the mold of Nowitzki or Durant, his mediocre assist-to-turnover ratio paints a troubling profile of a tunnel-vision scorer who lacks the generational scoring ability to justify it.
Bailey is extremely confident in his potential. This season at Rutgers and at the NBA Draft Combine, he walked the thin line between confidence and being cocksure.
His penchant for taking bad shots, combined with a “shooter’s gonna shoot” mentality, sounds a bit like a rich man’s version of Houston’s Cam Whitmore. Harper is an upgraded edition of Cade Cunningham. He’s 6-foot-6 and already has a grown man’s body, but his instincts are one-of-a-kind. If the Bucks do finagle their way into the No. 2 pick, Harper is the obvious choice.
Milwaukee’s path to relevance post-Giannis won’t come easy. If they emerge from this hypothetical blockbuster with Harper as their franchise cornerstone, the Bucks would accomplish what so few teams do after losing a superstar: engineer a seamless transition into the next era.