Matt Haarms is the 7’3 blocking machine from Purdue. Amsterdam native pathway to Boilermakers team led through Badalona, Spain and the prep year in Kansas at Sunrise Christian Academy.  Dutch giant could only practise since his arrival in the program on January. He was already eager to play but once again could only support teammates from the bench when they were succeeding in World University games in Taipei past summer. 

Good things definitely come to those who are patient and keep working hard. Currently Haarms is having extremely good start to the season. In his 7th game of career took a challenge to match up with DeAndre Ayton. Redshirt freshman introduced himself to potentially Top 5 NBA Draft pick by big time rejection of his shot attempt. He was also the main man behind the win over Louisville. Even though he scored just 4 points every experts noticed that his grittness made the difference and allowed Purdue to take the dirty W. 

Here’s clips from Haarms vs Ayton match up and other big time rejections from other games:


Let’s try to measure his impact looking at the statistics.
  • Anthony Davis surpassed Hassan Whiteside in 2012 as a freshmen with the biggest amount of blocks during the season (183 to 182). Regarding the optimistic variant in which Purdue plays 40 games during the season Haarms would record “just” 128 rejections. However dutchman is playing much less than two mentioned NBA Centers. Here’s comparison per 36:

1. Whiteside (7.37), 2. Haarms (7.11), 3. Davis (5.28)  

  • Purdue’s Defensive Efficiency in 2016/2017 – 0.949 (36th in NCAA) | Purdue’s Defensive Efficiency in 2017/2018 – 0.882 (21st in NCAA)
  • Purdue’s Opponent Floor % in 2016/2017 – 44.2% (24th in NCAA) | Purdue’s Opponent Floor % in 2017/2018 – 41.2% (19th in NCAA)
  • More Matt Haarms in 2017/2018 so far: BLK% – 18.0 (4th in NCAA), BLK/40 – 7.4 (2nd in NCAA)

Dutch big man obviously benefited from practising for the couple of months before starting actual collegiate career. More than half a year allowed him to put on some weight on his once skinny frame. Competing on a daily basis against Caleb Swaningan and Isaac Haas who are one of the most physically imposing players you can find in NCAA played a big role in Haarms readiness. He is easy to underestimate and surprisingly difficult to outhustle. While Swaningan is gone and became Trail Blazers draftee, Haas is still in Boilermakers roster. Matt is not post up heavy at all, runs better, possess perimeter skills and possibly they could create enormous 14 foot 5 inches frontcourt duo. As for now they don’t play much together but video below shows how much size and potential is there.

Take a look at Haarms willingness to battle and small sample of cooperation with Haarms:


Haarms is definitely not the typical giantic guy. His coordination and mobility is hard to believe for someone standing at 7’3. His defensive impact comes not only from blocking the shots in the paint. He possess legitimate lateral quickness which combined with his longish strides allow him to stay in front while guarding players far away from the basket. On the second clip you can notice that even guards without freakish athletic abilities give up idea of trying to penetrate against Purdue’s center.

Below lateral movement sample and opponents missed chances to penetrate to the rim:


Well…repertoire may not be broad but any kind of shot creating skills off the dribble are just the added value to the 7’3 player. It’s still not polished and mostly limited to step back on the right side of the floor but how many that tall people all over the world beside Kristaps Porzingis can do that? Also size is unmatched and if there is not enough separation he can simply shoot over folks. Clips:


Maybe it’s hard to consider this as disadvantage especially regarding Haarm’s reach but at times he is too passive as a finisher. He is too slow with putting the ball in the net and with current trend on the highest level of having the rim protector this can be a bit worrying. Those are not open lanes at all but it’s also not playing in the crowd. For that agile guy with good mobility who is on the light side leaping could be a bit quicker. However at times he can make it big and energize the team (second clip):


Haarms is not explosive at all (that would just be too much). Nevertheless he has considerably good ball handling, cannot be left wide opened with his decent stroke and is blessed with long limbs. It allows him to occasionally attack to the rim. Another asset is body control. He is very smooth operating on the move. Can adjust the direction quickly or stop immediately not to take charge. This is something that a lot of heavy centers struggle with.


So what future holds for Haarms? How big upside has super tall player from Amsterdam? It is very early to say since he still lacks overall polish, had just couple of good showings so far and now is not a guy out of nowhere any longer which can cause difficulties to maintain impact and consistency. However he shows flashes as legitimate stopper for soon to be NBA players. While there is not that much playing through the post in National Basketball Association anymore, still his help and perimeter defense is at least highly intriguing. For now he is just a fun to watch guy with loads of potential who has a good base but is still raw offensively and needs to work on IQ. There is very long way to go but with poise, size, D impact and further physical development sky is the limit. And with his length he may not be far away from touching it.