MCAP Auto #34 - Tobias Harris
2016-17 Panini Select - Signatures Orange 53/60
A 2010 McDonald's All American and Mr. New York Basketball, Harris was a 5 star prospect coming out of high school, ranked between 4th-7th in the country by scouts. He committed to Tennessee and averaged 15.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game in a point forward role. His performances enough to earn him Second Team All-SEC and SEC All-Freshman Team.
On the back of this success he nominated for the 2011 NBA Draft and was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats with the 19th selection, only to be traded on draft night to the Milwaukee Bucks in a three-way trade with the Sacramento Kings. In a shortened season due to the lockout, Harris got limited opportunities his rookie season, averaging 5 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11 minutes.
Little changed the following season, until the Bucks sent Harris to Orlando in February. Packaged with Doron Lamb and Beno Udrih, the Bucks return was JJ Redick, Gustavo Ayon & Ish Smith. His playing time exploded and with it, his stats. In 27 apperances with the Magic, the forward averaged 17.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 blocks in 36 minutes. Harris also tied a career high for points (30) and set a career high for rebounds (19) in getting a late season revenge win over the Bucks.
After his second season breakout in Orlando, Harris' production seemed to level off at a rate of 15 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists per game. The Magic rewarded Harris in 2015 with a 4 year, $64m contract, only to seemingly instantly regret it and traded him 49 games into his new deal to Detroit for Ersan Ilyasova & a washed up Brandon Jennings.
This failed to deter Tobi who keep doing his thing, scoring 21 points on debut and helping the Pistons reach the playoffs for the first time since 2009. It was his first playoff appearance in his career and despite struggling early in the series, recovered to average 14.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3 assists per game as the Pistons were steamrolled by LeBron James and the Cavs.
Harris played a full 82 games season for the first time in his career the following season, as a 24 year old but it wasn't long before the Pistons wanted to move on from Harris like Orlando. Midway through his 3rd season in Detroit, despite putting up a new career high 18.1 points per game and earning a Eastern Conference Player of the Week award, Harris found himself being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers as a major piece of the deal to acquire Blake Griffin.
Once again, Harris found himself as a key part of a team that wasn't quite good enough to make the playoffs. He continued to produce, averaging 19.3 points per game for the remainder of the season and a career high 20.9 points per game at the beginning of the 2018-19 as her earned another Player of the Week award along with a Player of the Month award!
The Philadelphia 76ers liked what they were seeing and Harris was once again traded, this time to be paired with Joel Embiid & Ben Simmons as the Sixers looked to challenge for the title. Harris high level of production continued in Philadelphia as the organisation finished 3rd in the East. He struggled out of the gate again in the Playoffs as he managed a paltry 4 points in the Game 1 loss to Brooklyn, however he bounced back with games of 19, 29 & 24 the next three as the 76ers advanced in 5. Harris failed to put up these numbers for the rest of the playoffs unfortunately and the 76ers lost to the eventual (& unlikely) champion Raptors in 7 games.
It was a disappointing end to a solid season by Harris & the Sixers, and the organisation doubled down on him being a key part of the trio being asked to lead the franchise to glory by offering him a 5 year, $180m contract. The organisation would have a disappointing season however. In the COVID-19 interrupted season, they only managed to finish 6th in the East and got swept in the first round by the Boston Celtics with Simmons missing the series with a knee injury. Harris averaged 15.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4 assists per game in the Playoffs but shot 38% from the field & 13% from deep.
The organisation needed a shake up, a new coach in Doc Rivers came onboard, as did a new GM in Daryl Morey and Harris kept on keeping on being his consistent self in the regular season. The Sixers finished first in the Eastern Conference and faced the Wizards in the first round. Harris was determined to silence his critics of playoff performances and came out with a 37 point Game 1 on his way to averaging 25 points per game in the five game series victory. All that stood in the way of the 76ers breaking through to the Eastern Conference Finals was a plucky, young Atlanta Hawks squad. Things didn't start well with the Hawks taking Game 1 in Philly, but the 76ers corrected course with back to back 16 point victories. Atlanta came back to level the series in Game 4 where Harris top scored for the Sixers with 20 points. He had been remarkably consistent through the first 4 games, averaging 21 points but in Game 5 he struggled scoring only 4 points in the home loss. He made amends on the road in Game 6, equal top scoring for Philly with 24 points as they headed home for Game 7. Once again Harris put up 24 points, but Philly weren't able to execute down the stretch behind confidence issues with All-Star point guard Simmons and they were once again out in an upset.
The 2021-22 season has started under a cloud of uncertainty for the 76ers. With the organisation and Simmons at an impasse. Still Harris keeps doing his business, although he is starting to feature in trade rumours in a deal for Ben Simmons. Once again it seems Harris has been determined to be a very good player, but not a good enough one to deliver playoff success as your 2nd or 3rd guy.
To date Harris has averaged 16.4 points, 6.2 rebounds & 2.2 assists over his NBA career, scoring 11,625 points in the process.