Philadelphia 76ers: Tobias Harris has to work better with Joel Embiid

According to Statmuse, Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris have played together in 108 games for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Over that tenure, spread over the better part of two and a half seasons, Embiid and Harris have led their team to the playoffs three times, made it to the second round twice, and generated a win percentage of 63.3.

All in all, pretty good. Not all-time great, not elite, but very good nonetheless.

Understandably, a lot of that success has to fall on Embiid and Harris’ combined shoulders, right? I mean, the duo have been the team’s top-two scorers over that tenure and have combined to score 40 percent of their average points per game over their joint run in South Philly.

Whoa, whoa, whoa; not so fast, my friend. While that is technically true from a statistical standpoint, Tobias Harris and Joel Embiid still haven’t quite cracked for the formula to fully play off of each other as efficiently as possible. That could, however, change in 2021-22, as the Philadelphia 76ers’ new-look offense could rely a whole lot more on the frontcourt pick-and-roll than in seasons past.

Tobias Harris needs to become a complete offensive player for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Tobias Harris has played pretty much every role one could have in the NBA.

He’s been a deep bench reserve relegated to garbage time, a rotational player with a defined role, and even a number one option on a pretty good Los Angeles Clippers team.

Sometimes, Harris has been asked to serve as a spot-up shooter, a role he’s become very good at over the past few seasons. Other times, Harris has been tasked with getting points off the dribble like a less expensive Carmelo Anthony, which he is similarly good at even if it provides less value in the modern-day NBA.

Heck, during his time with the Philadelphia 76ers, Harris has developed into a pretty darn good positional defender too, even if his reputation remains middle of the road league-wide.

But one thing Harris hasn’t really done with too much frequency, not with the Sixers anyway, is run the pick-and-roll as either the ball handler or screen setter.

In 2020-21, Harris only ran about 4.4 pick-and-rolls per game; good for one roughly every four times he possessed the ball. While Harris was darn effective when he actually ran the play, as he scored on 45.6 percent of those drives and landed in the 73rd percentile league-wide, he felt far more comfortable getting his shot himself either as a driver, a dribbler, or a catch-and-shoot dipper.

Sidebar: Is ‘dipper’ a term for a shooter or a brutal attempt at an alliteration? You decide.

Some of this surely had to do with Harris’ frequent play alongside Ben Simmons. While Simmons has proven himself a viable screener on occasion, his inability to provide support as a shooter on the wings would often allow opposing teams to crowd the paint and make life hard for the pride of the University of Tennessee.

Granted, Doc Rivers attempted to mitigate these issues by playing Harris with the second unit a bit more often, but over the course of the regular season, he still played an average of 26.6 minutes per game next to Simmons versus 5.9 on his own.

However, with Simmons effectively gone and even an average shooter like Tyrese Maxey taking his place, Harris will be far freer to drive to the basket with Embiid leading the way, a physically exposing sight we haven’t seen around these parts since Jon Ritchie was opening up holes for Duce Staley.

On paper, the duo should be able to form a darn good two-man game. Both can get a bucket from anywhere, both are 60-plus percent scorers from within five feet of the basket, and, most importantly of all, both are efficient free throw shooters who can hit on 86 percent of their attempts in any given game.

Fun fact: Harris came within a single percentage point of joining the exclusive 90-50-40 club for the first time in his career in 2020-21. Not too shabby.

If Harris can get more comfortable running the show as a primary ball-handler instead of a secondary offensive option, the sky is the limit on his potential moving forward, especially if he can up his accuracy as a passer.

Do you remember how Rivers would run his offense through Kawhi Leonard and Paul George during his final year in LA? That duo combined to average 15.2 pick-and-roll drives per game, and each finished in the top 79th percentile in terms of efficiency.

No offense to Montrezl Harrell and Ivica Zubac, but neither can hold a candle to Embiid as a scorer, defender, or even as a screen setter.

Some of Joel Embiid’s best stretches in the NBA have come because he had a locked-in offensive partner. He formed an elite two-man game with Jimmy Butler, set screens for Shake Milton during his particularly potent run in 2020, and had a ton of success with pick-and-pops when paired up with shooters like J.J. Redick and Seth Curry. If Tobias Harris can pencil his name onto the relatively exclusive list, it’ll not only help the Philadelphia 76ers weather Ben Simmons’ absence but unlock a new wrinkle in Doc Rivers’ offense that was largely absent in 2021.