Philadelphia 76ers: 3 goals for Tobias Harris going into 2020-21

Philadelphia 76ers Mandatory Credit: Mike Ehrmann/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports

Coming off a pandemic-altered season, Tobias Harris and the Philadelphia 76ers look for better results in 2020-21. These three goals will help Harris get there.

The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t done much well in the last few years from a team-building perspective, and they paid a costly price this past season. They were utterly disappointing, finishing sixth in a mediocre Eastern Conference and getting swept in the first round by the Boston Celtics. The end result of this was head coach Brett Brown’s inevitable firing.

Since then, they’ve hired recently-dismissed LA Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, and that could be an excellent thing for a number of players on this roster, but none more than Tobias Harris. The Sixers will need a big season from Harris in 2020-21, so let’s look at three goals that will help bring that to pass.

Goal No. 1 for Tobias Harris: Add a playmaking element

Tobias Harris is generally known for his sharpshooting ways (although last season was a struggle), but in order to unlock both his own and his team’s potential, he needs to introduce a playmaking element to his game. This is a complicated thing on this Sixers squad with a ball-dominant lead guard in Ben Simmons who isn’t a skilled (or willing) shooter, but particularly on Harris-plus-bench units with Simmons off the floor, he’s going to need to be at least a secondary ball-handler and facilitator on offense.

Harris has some experience with that under Rivers, and that leads to our second goal.