Tobias Harris Turning Into $180 Million Scapegoat For Philadelphia 76ers

Bryan Toporek Contributor SportsMoney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlqzlbBorfA

When the Philadelphia 76ers signed Tobias Harris to a five-year, $180 million contract this summer, they did so knowing he likely wouldn't provide commensurate on-court value.

Harris performed at a near-All-Star level last season with the Sixers and Los Angeles Clippers, averaging a career-high 20.0 points on 48.7 percent shooting, 7.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.9 triples across all 82 games. However, he isn't and won't ever be a full-fledged superstar like LeBron James or Kawhi Leonard, yet the Sixers paid him as though he was.

That contract has turned Harris into a hot rod for criticism in the early portion of the 2019-20 season, especially in the wake of his recent cold streak from deep.

Heading into Friday's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Harris has missed each of his last 23 three-pointers. His last made three came in the first quarter of the Sixers' 114-109 road loss to the Phoenix Suns on Nov. 4.

Many of the threes Harris bricked over that stretch were rhythm catch-and-shoot jumpers, which the Sixers should be actively encouraging him to take.



He's missed a handful of pull-up threes early in the shot clock as well, which are far less ideal. But given the Sixers' dearth of reliable long-range shooters, they're perhaps a necessary evil to deter opponents from packing the paint every trip down the floor.



Harris drilled 39.7 percent of his 393 three-point attempts last season with the Sixers and Clippers, but he's at only 20.4 percent (10-of-49) through 11 games this year. The nadir came in the Sixers' 98-97 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, when he finished 0-of-11 from deep and 4-of-17 overall in 33 minutes.

Midway through the third quarter of that game, Harris turned down a wide-open three to instead drive into the lane and pass to Ben Simmons on the baseline. However, Cavs big man Kevin Love sniffed it out and planted his feet right outside the charge circle, drawing an offensive foul on Harris.



After the game, Sixers head coach Brett Brown told reporters that Harris had a stomach bug and wasn't sure if he'd be able to suit up that night, according to Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice. That likely explains his lackluster outing against the Orlando Magic the following night, too. (He finished with eight points on 4-of-13 shooting, including 0-of-3 from deep, in 31 minutes.)

If Harris continues to shoot this poorly from deep—or pass up wide-open shots like he did against Cleveland in the third quarter—the Sixers' spacing woes will become that much more pronounced. But considering his career track record, it's reasonable to expect him to regress positively to the mean, particularly once he fully recovers from his stomach bug.

Frankly, the Sixers need him to, especially after losing JJ Redick in free agency to the New Orleans Pelicans.

"I look at Tobias as, kind of, my new J.J.," head coach Brett Brown told NBA.com's John Schuhmann. "I want him really hunting threes. I want him thinking that way."

In the meantime, Harris does deserve credit for finding ways to make an impact on offense despite his errant three-point stroke.

Against Phoenix, he and Simmons displayed promising chemistry in two-man actions where Simmons set a screen on Harris' defender and freed him up for mid-range jumpers. With Suns center Aron Baynes playing drop coverage to hang close to the rim, Harris repeatedly pulled up for easy buckets.



Harris and Horford have run such sets with similar results.



On the year, Harris has knocked down seven of his 12 attempts between 16 feet away from the basket and the three-point arc. He's also 10-of-21 from between 10-16 feet.

Since Simmons has yet to unfurl the jumper he worked on throughout the summer, the Sixers will need Harris and Josh Richardson to serve as primary pick-and-roll creators. If Simmons, Horford or Joel Embiid set good screens for them, they'll either get wide-open mid-range jumpers against centers playing drop coverage or will create an open lane to the hoop if the opposing bigs come out to the perimeter.

The Sixers' biggest challenge with Harris is figuring out how to make him work in tandem with Embiid.

When the big man sat out against the Detroit Pistons with a sprained ankle in the Sixers' second game of the season, Harris erupted for a season-high 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-6 from deep. His only two other 20-point outings (against Portland and Phoenix) both came with Embiid sidelined as well.

In games that Embiid has both started and finished—in other words, not counting the Minnesota game he left early—Harris has yet to top 15 points this season. While Embiid will rightfully remain the Sixers' focal point on offense when active, the Sixers need Harris to ascend into a consistent No. 2 scoring option alongside him.

The Sixers still have 71 games to work out their offensive kinks, and head coach Brett Brown told reporters Wednesday that he doesn't expect them to "find a rhythm beat to what we're doing" until past Christmas. But if Harris can't snap his cold streak from deep and/or carve out a bigger role on offense, his bloated $180 million contract will cause Philadelphia fans to turn on him much like they did with Andre Iguodala in the late 2000s.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryant...capegoat-for-philadelphia-76ers/#78e90b501c1e