Philadelphia 76ers: Tobias Harris could learn from Kevin Love

For the first time in his NBA career, Joel Embiid might have a Philadelphia 76ers team built solely around his style of play.

That sounds like a crazy statement but think about it; Embiid’s first year on the court came in 2016-17, when the Sixers’ roster was in a transitional period post-The Process. Their biggest veteran additions were Jerryd Bayless, Gerald Henderson, Sergio Rodriguez, and Ersan Ilyasova, and their three-biggest returning performers were Jahlil Okafor, Robert Covington, and Nerlens Noel. Then, immediately after his firecracker rookie season, Embiid landed his presumed lifetime partner in crime in Ben Simmons, who was drafted first overall in June of 2016.

From 2016 on, Embiid and Simmons were effectively tied at the hip, and every general manager that followed Sam Hinkie had to take both of their games into consideration when building out the team.

To Daryl Morey’s credit, he took the first steps in building an Embiid-approved roster this summer, even with the specter of Simmons hanging over the season. He signed a crafty combo forward with a pin trigger by the name of Georges Niang away from the Utah Jazz and improbably secured four-time rebounding champion Andre Drummond on a vet minimum deal to solve the team’s backup center woes once and for all… at least for this season. But there’s one player who remains on the team who largely lost his place in the offensive shuffle down Philly’s lone first overall pick left on their roster; a combo forward who was explicitly targeted due to his fantastic fit alongside Simmons.

With Simmons in place, Tobias Harris had a defined role, but now? He’s taking on a role that has near-totally dashed his efficiency and sent the team into a rut when he’s on the court. But why? Is it because Harris has suddenly forgotten how to play basketball? Or could it be that he simply misses his fellow max contract player both on and off the court? In my humble opinion, this is a classic case of a player who is in a role they are ill-equipped to fill and could sorely use a re-evaluation of their on-court responsibilities.

Ultimately, Tobias Harris needs to take a page out of Kevin Love’s playbook and accept a more streamlined role in favor of putting the Philadelphia 76ers in the best position to succeed.

The Philadelphia 76ers could really use a Kevin Love-esque third star.

Once upon a time, Kevin Love was a star.

He made it to three All-Star games over his first six seasons in the association, was named to the All-NBA Second Team twice in 2012 and 2014, and even led all players regardless of team, position, or conference in rebounding in 2011. After taking two years to get his NBA footing following a fantastic season alongside Russell Westbrook at UCLA, Love averaged 23.5 points, 13.7 rebounds, and three assists per game from 2010-14 and generated enough hype to be handpicked by LeBron James to join his second super team, now in Cleveland, alongside Kyrie Irving.

To fans in Minnesota, this surely stunk. After watching Kevin Garnett leave them to win a ring in Boston under future Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers, they had to once again watch their “franchise player” hoist the trophy in another city wearing another jersey, with no Karl-Anthony Towns to hang their hat on.

But for Love? Well, in Cleveland, things didn’t quite go as planned.

Sure, Love won a chip, signed not one but two $100 million contracts, and got to play in some of the most legit generational Finals rounds, but his game, more so than that of either Irving or James, had to take a backseat to get them there. Love averaged fewer points, rebounds, shots, and even minutes in Cleveland than he did in Minnesota, and while he was named to two more All-Star games, he was largely relegated to a spot-up 3-and-D role on offense with a usage rate down three full points from 26.9 to 23.9.

Seriously, in 2013-14, his final year in Minnesota, 58.9 percent of Love’s shots came without a dribble, and he touched the ball an average of 86.5 times per game. By contrast, in 2014-15, his first season in Cleveland, Love took 63.7 percent of his shots without a dribble and, ironically enough, only touched the ball an average of 63.7 times per game in any given contest, which, *spoiler alert,* is a pretty darn big difference.

Again, for Love, this surely stunk. He went from “the guy” in Minnesota to the third option in Cleveland, and some players just don’t have the ego to accept such a drastic role change, especially when said player is making more money than his entire front office and coaching staff combined. Love, by contrast, did accept the “Chris Bosh role,” if you will, and while his individual numbers took a hit, he played for a winner, earned two more trips to All-Star weekend, and got a ring out of the deal.

And hey, even now, there’s a bit of a Love-renaissance in “Believeland” because Beach Boys member Mike Love’s nephew has accepted a new role as the Cav’s veteran sixth man coming off the bench. That’s right, after pouting about his team’s non-winning ways and lobbying for a trade in some not-so-subtle ways, the 14th year pro is averaging 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in 22 minutes of action while accepting a role as a spot-up shooter on the wings. Once considered the owner of an untradeable contract, Love could actually be in a bit of demand this summer, when his contract will be in its final season.

Tobias Harris, take note: Kevin Love should be your blueprint moving forward.

Now personally, I don’t see a world where the Philadelphia 76ers trade Harris before the 2021-22 trade deadline. He has two more years left on his massive contract after this season, and his current game has soured many around the association on his value. Unless Daryl Morey goes all-in on this season after trading for a certain bearded superstar, it’s hard to see the team parting with the draft capital needed to get off of Harris’ contract before the deadline, even if it would ironically better position the team to pursue James Harden over the offseason.

No, even if the Sixers are able to land Harden, which feels like a 30-70 proposition, in my humble opinion, they’ll likely still have Harris on their books for the remainder of the season. That means Harris will continue to average a career-high 11.6 shots per game from 2 versus just 3.5 attempts from 3 and average a Sixers career-high 69.9 touches per game, which is a good 11.4 more per game than his average number of touches in 2018-19 (58.5). It also means Harris will spend just 0.6 possessions per game as a pick-and-roll screener, a rolls which he ranks in the 7.7th percentile in league-wide despite playing an average of 29.3 minutes per game alongside Tyrese Maxey, who ranks in the 82nd percentile as a pick-and-roll ball-handler on 6.8 attempts per game.

Is Harris, how he is playing now, a good fit alongside Maxey, Harden, or Joel Embiid? No. He takes too many shots in the midrange, wastes a ton of clock on ill-fated drives, and has a bizarre perversion taking a catch-and-shoot 3. But could he make his fit better with a bit of a role reclassification? Sure, and it wouldn’t be too hard to do.

For one, Harden would need to attempt way more catch-and-shoot 3s instead of pump faking his way into a contested midrange shot. During his final full season in Los Angeles, Harris took 4.5 catch-and-shoot 3s per game versus just 2.8 this season despite having a higher usage rate and averaging more touches per game.

Furthermore, Harris really needs to accept that a modern-day power forward has to set screens for a point guard and just operate off of them himself. When Ben Simmons was an active member of the team, he’d set up Harris for shots off the screen or via a sudden stop at the top of the key, which he would then flip to Harris for an elbow 3. While no one expects Harris to run an offense the same way as Simmons, he seldom facilitates offense for his teammates either off of a drive or as a screener, which is unfortunate for Maxey, Seth Curry, and the rest of his teammates, as they could benefit from an easier time on offense.

Heck, even Embiid could excel off of Harris screens in a goofy pick-and-roll, as any way to free the big fella up heading to the basket would be a positive considering how often he takes on double or even triple teams in the painted area.

No player has been more affected by Ben Simmons’ absence than Tobias Harris. He’s lost his chief offensive facilitator, missed his defensive partner in crime, and had to take on a bigger offensive role – either by his own behest or the behest of Doc Rivers – down one of the team’s three best offensive weapons. But here’s the thing; Tyrese Maxey has filled that void. No, he isn’t the same player as Simmons, as few are, but he’s a similarly effective player in transition, a much better shooter, and the sort of do-it-all two-way player who can’t be cued in on by opposing teams on offense like, say Seth Curry. For Harris to rebound off of an unfortunate season and retain his home in the City of Brotherly Love long-term, he really needs to adjust accordingly, like Kevin Love and Chris Bosh did before him, to being the third banana in an offense built around two incredibly high-level offensive players. If he can do that, great. If not, maybe Daryl Morey should give Koby Altman a call to see how much it would cost to acquire a player signed to a contract once considered untradeable.