Philadelphia 76ers: Grading Tobias Harris’ 2019-20 season

The Philadelphia 76ers have a lot of questions to answer with the 2019- 2020 NBA season on hold. With that said, let’s look at small forward Tobias Harris.

When the Philadelphia 76ers began their rebuild back in 2013, the goal was simple. Obviously, the team was trying to position itself to target top-tier, high-upside players in the NBA Draft. The Sixers hit on some, like Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, and lost on others, like Jahlil Okafor and Markelle Fultz.

Now, the NBA Draft was not the only place where the Sixers tried to acquire talent. The team was also able to hit on players who went undrafted, like T.J. McConnell and Robert Covington. Players like these ultimately helped bring relevance back to the City of Brother Love. But, even these players wouldn’t be enough. As such, former general manager Sam Hinkie’s vision was to acquire as many assets as possible in the hopes of being able to make a deal for a star player.

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While he was not able to see this through, being ousted by Jerry Colangelo, those same principles applied in his successors. Now, while Bryan Colangelo tweeted his way out of a job, the team’s current general manager was able to take the pieces left behind by Hinkie and Colangelo and bring in some big-time pieces.

Over the course of the 2018- 2019 NBA season, general manager Elton Brand was able to acquire All-Star wings Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris. At this point, the Sixers seemed poised to make a deep run in the NBA Playoffs. Ultimately, the Sixers took the Toronto Raptors to seven games and was a couple bounces away from potentially winning the entire series. So, the ideal situation would have been to simply run it back, right?

Well, that didn’t happen. Jimmy Butler ended up signing with the Miami Heat, leaving the Sixers scrambling to keep the roster afloat. As a result, the Philadelphia 76ers made a plethora of moves. One of the key moves ended being resigning Tobias Harris to a five-year, $180 million contract.

Considering the fact that Harris bounced around from team to team, it seemed important for him to find a place where he could call home. Ultimately, that place turned out to be with the Philadelphia 76ers. This made Harris the highest-paid player in team history.

With that sort of coin hitting his bank account, it was clear that Tobias Harris would have a new target on his back. Since the incoming roster was an overhaul from last year’s, Harris needed to assert himself more than before. Last year’s team had a three-headed monster of Simmons, Embiid, and Butler. This year, that monster would swap out Butler for Harris.

As such, Harris’ grading process will have a slightly different approach. Essentially, it won’t be a simple evaluation of his overall game. Instead, the focus will be on whether he has improved. Holistically, this is where Harris’ game needs to evolve.

Tobias Harris’ Game

On the surface, Harris’ 3-point percentage has improved from where it was last year. During his stint with Philadelphia, Harris has gone from 32.6 percent to 36.2 percent from beyond the arc. However, one interesting note is that Tobias Harris has been taking the same amount of shots both seasons.

His only real improvement has been on the inside, where he is taking and making an additional field goal per game. This improvement is rather small, however, as Harris continues to average around 19 points per game. From 2017 to 2019, Harris averaged 19.3 points per game. For what it’s worth, Harris has been a more efficient scorer all around, despite the inclusions of Josh Richardson and Al Horford.

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This could mean one of two things: either, Harris has plateaued or he has the potential to break that plateau. His true shooting percentage has slightly gone down from 56.2 to 55.7 percent. This would indicate that Harris may have hit a plateau. Now, that’s not to say that Harris hasn’t been a good player on offense. Many teams would love to have him. However, the one thing that will always tarnish Harris’ numbers will be that max contract.

Now, Harris has never really been a big name on defense. He typically averages less than a block and a steal per game. His defensive box plus/minus usually hovers between -1 and 0. At least he’s not a liability on that side of the ball. But, that’s another thing. With his defense not being as special, he needs to make it up on offense to truly stand out.

But, that simply has not been the case. While Harris does put up a respectable stat-line of 19.4 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game, it’s not enough to justify the max contract he got last summer. Simply put, he needs to step it up. Right now, he’s playing like a rich man’s Harrison Barnes. That said, I do think Harris can break through given his consistency. The one thing you can’t take away from Harris is his willingness to play to his skill level every game. It wouldn’t be fair to leave that out.

So, Tobias Harris would get a B- from me. While he has been the most consistent player on the Philadelphia 76ers outside of Ben Simmons, Harris needs to step his game up to meet the standard set forth by being the highest-paid player on the roster. It simply comes down to production.

Tobias Harris is capable, he just needs to execute.