Philadelphia 76ers: How Tobias Harris is fitting in so far

Once on the outside looking in at the elite of the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia 76ers made a deadline blockbuster trade to acquire Tobias Harris.

The Philadelphia 76ers took another progressive step in The Process in the lead up to this trade deadline when they acquired Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott from the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, promising rookie Landry Shamets and a plethora of valuable picks in the 2020, 2021 and 2023 drafts.

This was a steep price to pay, but for a team lacking in reliable perimeter shooting and threats from the pick-and-roll, it was a deal the organization decided simply must be made.

With the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors lapping the field in the Eastern Conference and the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics their closest competition, the Sixers needed to pull the trigger on a blockbuster.

Outside of J.J. Redick, the Sixers have not been a team blessed with 3-point shooters. Spacing is a problem when it comes to the way their roster has been constructed, considering the fact that their lead ball handler, Ben Simmons, is at best a reluctant outside shooter.

The fourth and fifth members of their starting lineup, Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiid, are both willing but not elite shooters.

On a team where Simmons has the ball in his hands the majority of the time, it’s important to surround him with shooting. In the form of Harris, they fully complete their offensive attack.

Harris immediately becomes either the best or second-best 3-point shooter on the team (Redick better for his career, Harris better this season with a career-best mark of 43 percent), and he does so with the ability to both be a primary ball-handler or play off the ball.

Harris has long been at his best when he can be a third scorer and on this roster he can be exactly that. While he can score with the ball in his hands, he’s effective with low usage as well, which is an important skill set when playing with one of the more talented starting fives in the NBA.

In fact, his usage over the five games he’s played with the Sixers would be the lowest of his career if carried out over an entire season.

"“The biggest thing is to have everybody on board with playing the right way and flowing off of each other. Sometimes you’re just a floor spacer, making space for other guys to create actions,” Harris told me when we spoke this week about the fit on his new team.“With our personnel, we have a lot of guys that create different mismatches and different kinds of coverage so for me it’s just a matter of evaluating where different guys like their spots, and I can find my spots all over the court.”"

Harris also becomes another capable pick-and-roll ball handler for a team that doesn’t run much of that play type, but might find more reason to do so now.

In high volume with the Clippers before the trade, he scored .993 points per possession as the ball handler, placing him in the 80th percentile. The Sixers actually run the fewest pick-and-rolls in the NBA, but they’re the third-most efficient when they do, scoring .949 points per possession.

While the pick-and-roll is generally the highest-frequency play in the NBA, it’s not the only way to score. Regarding a bump in his own usage in the play-type, Harris said:

"“I think we might incorporate that, but for me it’s not that big of a deal because I find different ways. I’m a scorer, and the ball gravitates to scorers. Pick and roll or not, the most efficient offense comes from how well we move the basketball and how well we get out and run off our stops.”"

Perhaps the most important element Harris brings to the Sixers is the ability to now fully stagger their starters. There’s really no need for the Philadelphia 76ers to ever have fewer than two starters on the floor at a time and with Harris on board now they don’t.

In fact, Harris has yet to see the floor without at least one other starter alongside, thus far usually either Butler or Simmons when they do roll with just two.

As Harris says:

"“I think it’s just a matter of figuring out which guys complement each other, finding out which guys can play in their roles. Having two guys on the floor at all times is good because it improves our depth.”"

While other coaches have eschewed staggering their stars at times, Brett Brown can manipulate rotations so that they never are without a starter.

In fact, in the five games since the trade, the Philadelphia 76ers have played a total of four minutes in which none of the starting lineup was on the floor.

The Sixers have a tall task in front of them if they hope to close the gap with the Bucks and Raptors in the regular season, but they have a serious shot against anybody in the Eastern Conference in a seven-game series with their added offensive punch.