All signs point to Tobias Harris as Detroit Pistons big offseason prize in free agency
The message from the Detroit Pistons' front office and ownership for a few years now: We have flexibility and cap space! That's a very good thing to have.
Yet general manager Troy Weaver's regime has little to nothing to show for it. Last summer was a gigantic miss, as the Pistons brought in Joe Harris and Monte Morris. Harris, added in a salary dump along with two future seconds and pegged to play real minutes on the wing, proved to be cooked. Morris got injured twice before even playing a game, delaying his season debut until late January, where he only played six games before being traded Wednesday for a few expiring contracts and a 2030 second-round pick. Harris was waived Thursday, the Pistons eating the remainder of his $19.9 million contract for the season.
The Pistons will try again this season, and this time Weaver knows they can't miss. He's fortunate to still be calling the shots thanks to owner Tom Gores.
The Pistons are again are loaded with room this summer, perhaps $50-60 million depending on where they draft from in the first-round in June. The problem, as we've written previously: This free agent class has dried up due to the changing NBA landscape of profitable early extensions. (Plus, Detroit is not a glamour destination for stars anyway.) Yes, the Pistons can also use the space again to take in a player making larger money, but they'll be closely looking at free agents.
That leaves one name connected to the Pistons for the past few months now.
ANALYSIS: Pistons upgrade wing rotation, maintain flexibility in busy trade deadline
Tobias Harris is the Pistons' big offseason prize
ESPN's Zach Lowe, one of the league's most respected NBA analysts, had this to say after becoming the latest reporter befuddled by the Pistons' recent moves.
"Pistons fans better brace themselves for the Tobias Harris pursuit of the summer of 2024, cause it's coming," Lowe said on his podcast, "The Lowe Post" on Thursday night. "Probably, maybe, probably."
Harris is playing out the fifth year of his five-year, $180 million contract signed with Philadelphia in 2019, avoiding the trade shuffle largely thanks to his enormous salary.
Pistons fans are familiar with Harris' game: He spent parts of three seasons with the Pistons from 2016-18 (157 games) during the Stan Van Gundy regime before being dealt to the Los Angeles Clippers in the Blake Griffin trade, the precursor to this whole teardown rebuild that was overdue.
Harris this season in 46 games, all starts, is averaging 17.8 points per game, six rebounds and 3.3 assists on 51.4% shooting, 34.6% from 3 and 90.3% from the foul line. His 55.8 eFG% (a statistic that acknowledges 3s are worth more than 2s, unlikely field goal percentage) is a tick above the 54.8 eFG% league average.
Scouting Tobias Harris
After watching a few hundred entire 76ers games with Harris in uniform over the past six seasons now, his positives and negatives are quite clear.
He prefers creating for himself off the dribble from the midrange or restricted area, as a straight line downhill driver and still can get a bucket with his bag of pull-up and fadeaway jumpers. And though he's a slightly above average 3-point shooter for his career at 36.8%, he's a reluctant one who struggles to stay aggressive both from beyond the line (3.7 career 3-point attempts per game) and with physicality at the rim (three free throw attempts per game for his career).
Defensively, to his credit he has morphed into an average to tick above average on the ball, but is slow to react off ball due to his upright and rigid footwork, and his rebounding comes and goes despite being a well-built, 6-foot-8, 226-pound.
Harris will be 32 in July and is best suited as a power forward at this stage of his career.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tobias Harris looks like Detroit Pistons big offseason prize in 2024
