PHILADELPHIA — While Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid are owning the spotlight for the Philadelphia 76ers, the consistent play of Tobias Harris continues to fly under the radar.
Harris has begun the season averaging 19.7 points and 4.7 rebounds while shooting 66.7% from the floor and 54.5% from deep. He had 24 points on 8-for-11 shooting in Sunday’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers, and he continues to be a key cog in Philadelphia’s offense.
“It is extremely important,” Embiid said of involving Harris. “He’s been playing extremely well the first three games and we’re gonna need consistency. Sometimes, you’re gonna have bad games, sometimes you’re gonna shoot well and you’re gonna have good games, but your mindset never changes.”
Harris can score in a variety of ways. He can take a guy off the dribble. He can knock down a 3-pointer, and he can use his size and strength to succeed in the post. There are many options coach Nick Nurse and the Sixers can go to with him.
“He’s been good,” Nurse added of Harris. “We try to keep an eye on what’s going on with him, I think, a little bit. We do probably play call a little bit more than maybe some other people to make sure he stays involved. I wanna keep him engaged on the defensive glass, and I think he can do a little bit of everything, right? He can score in the open floor, he can post, we throw it down in the post for him.”
The Sixers want to keep Harris involved in the offense. While Maxey and Embiid are the two that will push them forward, it’s important for Harris to get touches and Nurse knows that.
“We flipped a play around that usually Joel posts up and Tobias passes it to him, but we flipped it around and Joel hit him and he scored a nice bucket in there,” Nurse explained. “He can drive it a little bit and I liked the way he vaulted up and did his catch-and-shoot 3s. He’s a little bit of all that stuff so just try to not let too many trips go or long stretches of the game where, for whatever reason, the ball doesn’t find him least we got to try to make a conscious effort to make the ball find him.”
Not only can Harris score, but he continues to make strides as a defender. He can get key stops on that end of the floor.
“That’s where his head has to be because I feel like, for all of us, once guys start focusing on shots, that’s when they kind of get away from what actually matters and I think he’s had the right mindset,” Embiid finished. “Just being aggressive defensively and offensively.”
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