Philadelphia 76ers: Turns out Tobias Harris just needs to Trust the Process

Tobias Harris.

Down one, three seconds to go, the game on the line, on national television, who do the Philadelphia 76ers go to in order to secure a W versus those pesky Los Angeles Lakers but Tobias Flippin‘ Harris.

If some three months ago you laid that exact situation out to a Sixers fan and asked for such a game’s outcome, they would all but surely say loss 9-10. Heck, if you laid that scenario out to the same fan three games into the 2020-21 NBA season, they’d likely give you the very same answer.

But, with the game on the line, after blowing an 81-74 lead entering the fourth, who did Doc Rivers and company turn to in order to “Bring it home for a landing” – yeah, that’d be the headbanded half of Tobi and Bobi, who took a pass from Seth Curry at the top of the key, drove right through Elmer Fudd Alex Caruso on his way to the basket and pulled up for a lights-out 15-foot J just as LeBron James was collapsing in.

The results? *Kisses fingers* beautiful.

Sure, the Lakers technically had a chance to still win the game, as Anthony Davis got a shot off from around half court to try to steal the deal, but it was ultimately fruitless. The  76ers unseated the reigning champions – even if it was just a Wednesday night regular season game – and even Irvin “Magic” Johnson would love to see the two teams reunite in the NBA Finals later this year.

Tobias Harris is becoming what the Philadelphia 76ers always envisioned.

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Tobias Harris gets a lot of hate for what he isn’t but very rarely for what he is.

Harris isn’t aggressive enough, he’s isn’t a clutch, he isn’t Jimmy Butler. While there are very few players who actually fit Harris’ athletic profile in the NBA right now – as you’ll be hard-pressed to find many 6-foot-8, 226-pound forwards who can knock down shots from all three levels of the court and defend at an average to above-average level both on the wings and in the paint – some consider the decision to trade a small war chest of assets for the well-traveled vet and then sign him to the most lucrative contract in Philadelphia 76ers history a cardinal sin that could tank the franchise for the foreseeable future.

Well, if Harris continues to play lights-out basketball and come up clutch when the entire city needs him most, all but his most ardent detractors will surely come around in no time.

Since reuniting with Rivers after a season and a half apart, Harris looks like a new man. Call it the fortunate byproduct of playing his natural power forward position or of having a better scheme that actually plays to the strengths of his teammates, but Harris is playing like a borderline All-Star, with the word borderline becoming increasingly less necessary with each passing game.

Harris is playing faster, looser, and with more swagger. He’s increasingly committing to a plan of attack earlier in the shot clock and will either drive it to the hoop, take an open shot, or pass out of a look without wasting a third of the shot clock trying to make a decision.

Though things could change considerably with a bigger sample size, Harris’ usage rate is down from 23.9 to 23.2 while his player efficiency rate is up from 17.2 in 2019-20, to 18.7 in 2020-21 – the third-highest mark on the team behind Joel Embiid (duh) and Tony Bradley’s 90 minutes of on-court action.

But wait, it gets better.

Harris is averaging four more touches a game despite playing roughly a minute less each night and passing out of almost 10 percent more of those touches. He’s taking roughly 40 percent of his shots without a dribble – up from 35 percent in 2019-20 – versus 31 percent of his shots on three or more dribbles – which again is way better than taking 24.5 percent of his shots off of 3-6 dribbles and an insane 11.1 percent of his shots off of 7+ dribbles.

It doesn’t just look like Harris is being more decisive with the ball; the numbers actually back up that fact by a pretty impressive margin.

Factor in the addition of a pair of perfectly picked wings in Curry and Danny Green, and boom, the Sixers suddenly have an offense that is not only functional but firey, and Daryl Morey has transformed a once fledgling team into a legitimate championship-caliber team – again, Magic Johnson’s words, not mine.

And to think, some openly pontificated that the season was over when the Sixers were on a three-game losing streak without half of their roster at the top of the month.

Is it sustainable? Is Harris on his way to a career-first All-Star Game appearance a decade in the making? Or, will Harris hit another cold streak that fans unfortunately know all too well? My goodness, this might be the most exciting Philadelphia 76ers season we’ve seen in some time, and Philly fans can’t even enjoy it in person. Isn’t that just how these things tend to go?