Philadelphia 76ers: Tobias Harris could only sweeten a Ben Simmons trade

What would the Philadelphia 76ers look like today if Daryl Morey, not Jerry/Bryan Colangelo, was afforded an opportunity to take over for his protege, Sam Hinkie?

Would he have drafted Ben Simmons over Bradon Ingram (probably)? How about trading up to acquire Markelle Fultz (probably not)? Would Jimmy Butler be a Sixer today? How about Tobias Harris? What about Matisse Thybulle?

While we will never know the answer to any of those questions, one thing is clear: The Sixers’ roster is not currently built to Morey’s specifications.

I mean, think about the role player-caliber non-centers Morey has acquired since coming to town, from Georges Niang to Danny Green, Seth Curry, and George Hill; what do they have in common? Well, for one thing, the quartet all have quick triggers and can adequately space the field around Joel Embiid. They’re also all low-usage players who excel in off-ball roles, even Curry and Hill, who fall into the combo guard category of backcourt player.

Historically speaking, that’s the sort of player Morey has liked to place around his stars. He likes centers who can rebound, guards who can comfortably space the field off the ball, and most importantly of all, 3-and-D wings of all shapes and sizes who are fine with averaging a dribble a minute.

Tobias Harris, at least in Philadelphia, plays a brand of basketball that is diametrically opposed to “Moreyball.” From his aversion to catch-and-shoot 3s, to his pension for passing up open 3s for contested 2s, and his over-reliance on dribbling away precious seconds before flinging the ball out to Embiid on the wings, Harris plays a style of basketball that some teams – and Elton Brand – surely still appreciate, but as a general rule, his lack of aggression and more shot selection has capped the success of lineups he’s featured in, even if his counting stats look good seemingly every time he takes the court.

So really, it should come as no surprise that the Philadelphia 76era have reportedly made Tobias Harris available at the trade deadline, specifically in deals that also feature Ben Simmons. If, as Brian Windhorst attested on the most recent edition of his Hoops Collective podcast, Daryl Morey can’t outright land a superstar, why not move off of an ill-fitting max contract player and see if he can’t build something better?

The Philadelphia 76ers are right to pursue trades involving Harris and Simmons.

Tobias Harris is a negative asset.

Regardless of whether you like him, hate him, or fall somewhere in between, it’s clear his level of production doesn’t match his current contract – the second richest in Philadelphia 76ers’ history – and thus, affects his overall value.

How much Harris’ $180 million contract brings down his value, however, could depend mightily on what sort of package an opposing team would surrender for his services either in a solo trade or as part of a bigger deal alongside Ben Simmons.

FiveThirtyEight, for example, considers Harris an “average starter” and lists his five-year market value at $45.3 million, which is a quarter of his current contract’s value. If that is, in fact, the case, it’s hard to see any team, even a bad one like the Houston Rockets, wanting to take on the final two years and change of his contract, not without being incentivized to do so.

Attaching Harris’ contract to that of Ben Simmons, I’d wager, is a pretty darn good incentive.

As things presently stand, the market for Simmons is weird. There are about half a dozen suitors who have been pretty consistently linked to him since he hit the block back in 2021, and while none have offered up the sort of value the Sixers are looking for, most, if not all, have only intensified their pursuit as the season has gone on. How would the packages offered up by these teams change with Harris offered in a package alongside Simmons?

Well, the easiest package to ID would have to be that of the Kings, who have two players making over $20 million in Harrison Barnes and Buddy Hield who are far from untouchable and could be included in a deal alongside Marvin Bagley and Tyrese Haliburton to form a legal deal for Simmons, Harris, Shake Milton, and either Charles Bassey, Isaiah Joe, or Paul Reed. Such a deal wouldn’t require a third team and would provide the Sixers with additional passing, rebounding, and shooting. What it likely wouldn’t include, unfortunately, is the sort of war chest of first-round picks Morey has been looking for, presumably to remain in the running for a superstar player like Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, or his white whale, James Harden.

In his NBA trade deadline primer, ESPN’s Bobby Marks suggested a similar trade for Simmons centered around Haliburton and Barnes – but minus Harris – that included two future first-round picks. Would the addition of Harris and Hield into such a deal remove one of those first-round picks? Both of them? Would the Kings want a better prospect like Jaden Springer over the likes of Bassey, Joe, or Reed? These questions, my friends, could define whether or not packaging Harris in a deal with Simmons is worth it or not.

And what about the Minnesota Timberwolves? They have reportedly offered up every player and available picks on their books minus Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards and have been rebuffed by Morey and company. Would a package they’ve already rejected, say, D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley, plus all those picks, suddenly become palatable with Harris, Patrick Beverly, and Taurean Prince added to the deal to make the money work?

Probably not, but hey, that’s why they call it negotiations.

Getting off of Tobias Harris’ contract is not a dire need for the Philadelphia 76ers. While he isn’t what one would call a “Daryl Morey guy” by any stretch of the imagination, he’s far from an Al Horford-level asset that has to be traded regardless of the cost in order to make a team work. His inclusion in a deal wouldn’t magically turn a proposed deal the team outright rejected into a can’t miss prospect, and if his inclusion in a deal the team likes is outright rejected, I would assume they wouldn’t accept something lesser just to get off of that $180 million contract. With that being said, if the Sixers are 90 percent there on a hypothetical deal, say, one with the Sacramento Kings, and their GM, Monte McNair, offers to take back Harris, too, in exchange for a player like Harrison Barnes, then that might just be the sweetener needed to put a deal over the top.