Tobias Harris
Detroit Pistons

Player Facts

Height: 6'8"
Weight: 226lbs.

Wingspan: 6'11"

Date of Birth:
July 15, 1992
College Experience: Tennessee (1 year)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 7
Physical Strength: 8
Positional Size: 8
Positional Wingspan: 8
Paint Scoring: 7
Midrange Scoring: 7
Three-Point Scoring: 8
Dribbling: 7
Passing: 5
Perimeter Defense: 6
Interior Defense: 5
Rebounding: 8

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Catch-and-Shoot and Catch-and-Go

> Driving Inside

> Robust Cutting

> Generating his Offense

> Posting + Passing

> Fast Break Forte

> Defensive Work + Rebounding

> Flimsy Off-Ball Defense

> Struggling Against Elite Quickness

> Midrange Inaccuracy

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

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*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

The 6'8" Tobias Harris is a talented three-level scorer with a 6-11 wingspan. He can create for himself but thrives next to other premium ball-handlers. Harris chips in through several different avenues as a combo forward on the basketball court.

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Catch-and-Shoot and Catch-and-Go

Harris is a good shot creator, staying light on his feet as he plans his attack. On jumpers, he has a high release point and rapid shooting motion. As a slasher, his musclebound upper body helps him absorb hits along the drive.

Off a teammate's dribble penetration, Tobias likes to use the hop as he catches the kickout pass. His options are plentiful from this position. Harris can drive left or right and is in a better rhythm to catch-and-shoot than if he didn't hop.

Tobias frequently pulls the trigger on the open triple that his driver created. His fluid shooting mechanics led to a 44.3% clip on 2019-2020 corner threes. Furthermore, he was in the 79th percentile for overall spot-up scoring that same year. 2021-2022 had him a hair under 40% on these side pocket triples.

Harris is at his best when attacking closeouts or any form of scrambled defense. He has a nice one-dribble pull-up to evade the closeout. Tobias is a very decisive player off the catch.

He'll get upright on the catch to simulate a jumper and render his defender flat-footed. Harris proceeds to power to the hole. The Tennessee product is a solid finisher with a 63.2% restricted area clip in 2019-2020. Tobi managed to up this to 66.8% in 2020-2021 and posted 66.7% in 2021-2022.

Driving Inside

He keeps the ball bouncing tight to his body as he attacks. Harris uses his frame to shield the basketball and keep the defender riding his hip. The opportunistic Tobias jets through driving angles as soon as he identifies them.

Tobias has a propensity to make difficult driving bank shots. These come after creating vital separation via subtle off-arm movement. Moreover, he gets to the line at a moderate rate but is a dependable free throw shooter.

2019-2020 was completed with the fourth most non-restricted area paint points for Harris. He claimed a glimmering 52.4% mark with floaters in this space. Tobias trailed only Nikola Jokic, DeMar DeRozan, and Donovan Mitchell in buckets here.

Robust Cutting

Another way Harris contributes positively without the ball is through cutting. He awaits the moment where his defender turns his head towards the ball-handler. Tobias makes the corner-to-key cut regularly. He was in the 84th percentile for scoring off cuts in 2019-2020 then the 87th in 2020-2021.

Generating his Offense

Tobias competently initiates the offense himself at times. He keeps it simple and uses the defensive big's positioning as a guide for his next move. As a Clipper in 2018-2019, he was in the 86th percentile for scoring as the pick-and-roll ball-handler. Harris maintains a similar read-and-react approach in dribble handoff sets.

Harris has a separate bag to turn to in straight isolation scenarios. He uses a convincing up-fake to get his defender in the air, drawing some fouls this way too. He scored more isolation points in 2019-2020 than Ja Morant, Danilo Gallinari, and Bojan Bogdanovic.

He uses his explosiveness against bigs on switches. Harris likes to utilize a negative step to blast off from. Tobias' broad set of offensive tools allows him to hold some sort of advantage against all defender types.

Posting + Passing

Tobias rounds out his shot creation package with a reliable post game. He backs down lighter players into the paint before turning and firing. A developed face-up game and good quickness allow for blow-bys to the rim here.

Harris will find cutters well as he posts. Overall, he is a capable passer. Tobias slots in ideally as a tertiary playmaker on the floor. Also, he's a consistently low turnover player in spite of sizable scoring duties.

Fast Break Forte

Tobias' productive transition game caps off his offense. He runs the floor hard and is a good target for guys like Ben Simmons to pitch ahead to. He can also run the break himself and is a serviceable facilitator in the open court.

Harris will gladly finish here and in the half-court with his left if that's the optimal layup angle. All in all, he produced 1.17 points per possession in 2019-2020 transition. He piled up more points on the break than Damian Lillard and Dennis Schroder that year.

Defensive Work + Rebounding

Tobias has grown into an above-average positional defender in NBA. He has the physical tools and typically the commitment to defense required to do good work guarding on the wing.

His switchability helps his defensive value substantially. At a bulky but spry 6'8", he can provide at least adequate defense on nearly all forms of opponents.

Harris' man defense continues to be functional in the post. He placed in the 66th percentile for his 2019-2020 post defense. This was done on more post-up possessions defended than bigs like Brook Lopez and Steven Adams.

In transition, he energetically gets into the play by sprinting back. Tobias has a knack for getting a piece of the ball to strip or break up transition plays.

He is a formidable defensive rebounder at combo forward. Harris wisely scans the floor for streaking teammates as he corrals the board. In 2019-2020, he averaged more defensive rebounds per game than guys like Draymond Green, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Myles Turner.

WEAKNESSES

Flimsy Off-Ball Defense

His off-ball defense is unspectacular. This is rooted in a mediocre defensive IQ that restricts the likelihood of advanced reads. Harris rarely interferes in passing lanes despite a solid wingspan and good mobility.

2019-2020 saw him average merely 1.1 deflections per contest in 34.3 minutes per game. The game's better perimeter disrupters doubled and, in some cases, tripled this feeble output by Harris that year. For instance, both Jimmy Butler and Robert Covington offered 3.4 deflections a night.

Struggling Against Elite Quickness

Tobias can struggle to contain speedy guards. He conceded 0.90 points per possession to pick-and-roll ball-handlers in 2019-2020. This put Harris in the 42nd percentile. Fellow big wings Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum only permitted 0.86 and 0.68 points per possession here respectively.

Overall, he is just not a big-time defensive playmaker. Tobias' defensive counting stats such as steals and blocks are less-than-stellar. His perimeter defense is useful in the moments that he does grind, but these instances are not as common as they should be.

Midrange Inaccuracy

Harris' accuracy in the midrange can be streaky. He put up a boatload of midrange shots in 2019-2020 but lacked consistency at a 34.7% efficiency here. Jamal Murray nailed 46.3% of his midrange jumpers for comparison, and CJ McCollum hit 48.9%. Tobias did finally get his midrange clip up to 44.4% in 2020-2021 though.

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bacon
Beacon Bacon

Tobias Harris is first cousins with retired NBA champion Channing Frye