Philadelphia 76ers: Tobias Harris coming through in Joel Embiid’s absence

The Philadelphia 76ers enter every season knowing they may have to do some work without Joel Embiid, their best player and MVP candidate. That period came for the Sixers in the middle of March when he was held out due to a knee injury which continues to keep him out of the lineup.

It’s hard for any team in the NBA to stay afloat without their best player. Historically speaking, the Sixers are a case study in this as they are world-beaters with him on the floor and below-average without him. With Embiid missing 10 of the last 11 games, however, they’ve thrived.

Tobias Harris is helping the Philadelphia 76ers stay afloat without Joel Embiid

On the season, the Sixers are actually getting outscored by 0.7 points per 100 possessions with Joel Embiid off the floor, but things have been different since Embiid’s injury. Since March 11th, Embiid has played only 20 minutes. With him off the floor the 76ers have outscored their opponents by 7.8 points per 100 possessions.

It’s a stark difference from their usual failures when they’re missing their best player. Just why have things turned around so dramatically?

Look no further than Embiid’s teammate Tobias Harris.

Whether fair or not, Harris was much-maligned coming into this season. The Sixers had paid him a max contract to retain his services last offseason after trading a treasure trove of assets to the LA Clippers for him in the first place. To top it off, Harris didn’t bring his trademark sharpshooting with him to Philadelphia.

Conversations about Tobias Harris invariably revolved around whether he had the worst contract in the NBA or not, and if your opinion was that it wasn’t, it had to be high on the list. He averaged 19.6 points last year, but did so on average efficiency, shooting 47.1 percent from the floor and 36.7 percent from 3-point range.

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Being average wasn’t what the Sixers wanted when they traded for him. Fast forward to this past offseason, and the Philadelphia 76ers fire head coach Brett Brown, replacing him with Harris’s former head coach with the Clippers, Doc Rivers. They also hired Daryl Morey to run the team’s basketball operations and he swiftly traded Al Horford, clearing up a clogged frontcourt and giving the reins at the forward spot to Harris.

These moves have paid dividends. Harris has had a breakout season, shooting 40.4 percent from 3-point range, and he’s been playing some of his best basketball since Embiid went down. Since March 11th, he’s averaging 22.0 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks per game.

Harris has shot the ball at a blistering clip with shooting splits of .527/.414/.923 over this particular stretch of games, and most importantly the Sixers are handling their opponents with ease as a result. With Embiid off and Harris on since March 11th, the Sixers are outscoring their opposition by 7.2 points per 100 possessions and they’re 7-3 in the 10 games he’s missed.

They’re doing their best to hold off the streaking Brooklyn Nets who are getting MVP-level play from James Harden. While the Nets are seemingly crushing everything in their path right now whether they have Kyrie Irving or not, the Sixers have managed to only 1.0 games to them in the standings.

Now tied for first place with matching 32-15 records, the Sixers and Nets have a heavyweight match ahead of them to decide the top seed in the Eastern Conference. The Philadelphia 76ers couldn’t have done this without Tobias Harris.