Tobias Harris is one of the harder players to truly quantify on the Philadelphia 76ers‘ roster.
On one hand, he’s playing just slightly below his career averages in a Sixers uniform, scoring 18.9 points, 3.3 assists, and 7.2 rebounds a night while hitting 46.7 percent of his shots from the field and 31.5 percent from beyond the arc. Despite missing a half month due to COVID, Harris has remained an engaged leader for the team both on and off the court and could ultimately see his numbers improve once Philly finally strings together some on-court continuity for the first time since October.
But when you actually watch Harris on the court without the boxscore, there are some increasingly troubling developments that are hurting the Sixers more than they help.
For one thing, Harris remains an incredibly indecisive player with the ball in his hands. He routinely passes up catch-and-shoot 3s for contested 2s, rarely embraces contact when he’s driving to the paint and has a horrible pension for passing the ball off to Joel Embiid away from the basket after drawing defenders into the paint.
Now granted, some of these issues could come from Harris playing a role he’s ill-equipped to play, as he’s taken it upon himself to be the Sixers’ second-best player when he’s really better suited to be an option there, and once Ben Simmons is traded, he could settle into a more advantageous offensive role, but who is to say that will actually happen? Harris, statistically speaking, has always been better off when paired with an elite passer, and if he’s tasked with playing power forward next to a player like, say, Brandon Ingraham, many of his offensive issues may remain.
Fortunately, if Daryl Morey views the best chance to improve the Philadelphia 76ers’ roster is by acquiring a small or even power forward, the team could always opt to trade Tobias Harris, as there are a few teams who could really use his services over the back half of the 2021-22 season and beyond.
The Philadelphia 76ers could help the Indiana Pacers rebuild.
The Indiana Pacers are reportedly looking to sell off a few ill-fitting pieces in the hopes of launching a soft rebuild, with Caris LeVert, Domantas Sabonis, Jeremy Lamb, Justin Holiday, and Myles Turner all potentially on the move.
Does landing Tobias Harris help a rebuild? No, not on his own, but if the Sixers find themselves on the lookout for a player like LeVert, or want to go crazy and try to pair up Sabonis with Embiid in the paint – which probably isn’t the best idea but hey, who is to say? – they could easily package his contract with one or more of their young players, like Paul Reed or Jalen Springer, to help the Pacers build towards the future with a versatile forward in place alongside Malcolm Brogdon.
Worst-case scenarios, both Harris and Brogdon could be traded in the offseason to fully embrace a #PacersProcess. Best-case? The duo play well, and Indiana can continue to be a 4-6 seed and hopefully draw a few more fans to the least attended market in the NBA.
Of the teams looking to re-tool, Indiana is probably the hardest to judge because they simply haven’t started it yet. They may want to bottom out and hope to land the next Reggie Miller or Paul George, or they may be more interested in remaining competitive with a professional scorer like Tobias Harris and hope that they hit the lottery in the NBA Draft Lottery in 2022 while they continue to fight for relevance. Either way, this situation is worth monitoring.
The Philadelphia 76ers could provide Portland with a Big 3 forward.
Have any two teams been more connected so far this season than the Philadelphia 76ers and the Portland Trail Blazers? Seriously, it feels like a week hasn’t gone by without a Sixers-Blazers rumor, whether that be surrounding Ben Simmons, Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, or even our old pal Robert Covington.
Are most of these potential deals bunk? Sure. No offense to Bobby Marks, but Portland will never agree to a deal for Lillard centered around Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxey, but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be a deal around the peripheries worth exploring.
Would Portland have any interest in making Harris a Blazer, either for McCollum straight up or in a three-team deal that brings back role players like Covington or Larry Nance Jr. to the City of Brotherly Love?
Theoretically, Harris would be the best forward to wear a Blazers uniform since LaMarcus Aldridge left the Pacific Northwest for San Antonio in 2015 and could provide a different look at both ends of the court for a team barely treading water in the West. He’s a bigger and better defender than McCollum, a better offensive option than any forward on the Blazers’ roster, and may even be able to form a viable two-man game with Lillard if Chauncy Billups commits to running the 1-4 pick and roll as a core tenant of his offense.
Assuming the Sixers’ reported disinterest in McCollum holds over to a non-Ben Simmons deal, this one might be harder to pull off, but in the modern-day NBA, where teams have no issue with rolling over half of their roster in the middle of the season, there could be a market for players like Covington, Nance, and Jusuf Nurkić in three-team deals, especially if the Trail Blazers really like Andre Drummond as a replacement starting center.
Houston, the Philadelphia 76ers might have a solution.
Between you and me, this is my favorite potential trade idea because it just makes a ton of sense for both parties involved.
The Houston Rockets are a bad team. Don’t let their recent win streak fool you; they aren’t making the playoffs or even the play-in game, and if we’re being honest, they probably shouldn’t even want to, as it would mess with the number of ping pong balls they secure in 2022.
With that being said, the Rockets do need to put the pieces in place to eventually win, which should involve more young players, which Philly has, and a high-character veteran who can lead the locker room and provide offensive consistency to a very hot-and-cold team.
By my estimation, the Rockets have three pillars they can build around, Kevin Porter as a combo guard, Josh Green on the wings, Alperen Şengün in the paint. Sure, they also have a pair of specialists in Garrison Mathews and Jae’Sean Tate, who are very impressive, but those two are more complementary pieces than true starters.
What is missing from that quartet? A combo forward like Tobias Harris who can play off of the youngsters and help them grow. Factor in a promising young big like Paul Reed, who doesn’t get nearly enough minutes from Doc Rivers, and a player like either Jaden Springer or Shake Milton, and the Rockets could seriously supplement their current rebuild by exchanging some of Daryl Morey’s former acquisitions – plus original Process Sixer, Christain Wood – for younger on-court fits.
And as for the Sixers? Well, how would they look with a Big 3 of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and a top-25 player with Eric Gordon running the second unit, Christian Wood at the four, and Danuel House bolstering the reserve frontcourt? Assuming the Sixers want to embrace what has worked best for them so far this season, attacking the paint with catch-and-shooters on the wings, implementing a post-Simmons Big 3 with willing role players may make more sense than having Harris continue on with his current role, even if you’d be swapping out a quarter for two dimes and a nickel.
Remember, Harris was initially acquired to be the ultimate 3-and-D guy, not an ISO scorer. Securing more of the former with higher-ceiling versions of the latter is still the best way to win around Embiid.
Until the Philadelphia 76ers actually trade Ben Simmons, it’s basically impossible to predict any other ancillary deals. Why trade for a passing veteran point if such a guard could come back in the deal? Why do the same for a big wing when one very much could still be on the table too? Outside of stealing a buy-low shooter away from a bad team, the best course of action right now is to wait and see how the market continues to develop and hope that the East Conference standings aren’t too distorted when it’s time to compete. But once Simmons is moved, don’t be surprised if Tobias Harris’ name comes up on conversations as well, as he may no longer be a fit with the team in a post-BS world.