Boston Celtics: Who Is the Explosive Luke Harangody?
To quote Paul Pierce, "Gotta plane to catch. All of my quotes will be coming from Luke Harangody. And tweets."
When the Celtics drafted Luke Harangody last year many thought this red-headed big man would be a decent stand-in for role-player and departed fan favourite Brian Scalabrine. His last name even had the same amount of syllables, so Celtics fans could chant it.
Against the Toronto Raptors, however, Harangody changed that perception, playing the game that Scalabrine never could. All of a sudden Harangody looked like one of the better players from an admittedly shallow 2010 draft that has thus far only produced a single bona fide star in John Wall.
In less than four minutes in the first quarter, Harangody proved he was a viable contender to be considered for the Celtics' rotating lineup, scoring a huge eight points. He finished the night with an NBA career high, totalling 17 points and 11 rebounds in a meager 26 minutes. Not too shabby.
It seems now that he has proved himself to be at least marginally NBA ready Harangody deserves some analysis. To be fair he was playing against a poor, though slightly underrated Raptors, whose win-loss record doesn't really reflect their talent. But any rookie double-double is nothing to be sniffed at, particularly from the 52nd pick from what is considered a poor draft.
Harangody was a Notre Dame star, who decided not to declare for the 2009 draft so he could play his final year with the Irish. Despite the poor performances from the Irish, Harangody actually has quite a decent resume from his time playing with them.
He is the only player in Big East history to average 20 points and 10 rebounds in conference play throughout his whole career. He is also the first Irish player to make All-Big East selection three years in a row, and the first player to lead in both scoring and rebounding in consecutive seasons.
Harangody has a lot of work to do to improve his game, and Doc Rivers is obviously limiting his time at the moment, but he is a great future prospect for the Celtics. Though unlikely to crack the starting lineup of the deepest team in the NBA any time soon.
By staying and playing for Notre Dame for the extra few years while he was draft eligible, Harangody has obviously allowed himself to develop and become comfortable with his own style of play, that features explosive scoring and rebounding.
In the man's own words, as he faced his first NBA press scrum:
"I'm not shy. I did it for four years at Notre Dame. If I am open I'm gonna take the shot."
