December 20, 2022
Up three with a minute-and-a-half left in Monday's extra session, Tobias Harris knocked down his second triple of overtime and got fouled in the process, pushing the Sixers to a six-point lead over the Raptors. Not so fast, my friend — his big moment from a three-point win over the Raptors was wiped away, the officials eventually ruling that a P.J. Tucker moving screen was grounds to erase the jumper. In their comments after the game, the Sixers indicated their unhappiness with the call.
"I still don't understand the call, that will have to be explained to me," Doc Rivers said Monday. "Going by the letter of the rulebook that I read, I don't get that call. Someone's going to have to explain that. Maybe they're right, [but] you can't go back two plays in a play. The foul was on P.J. under the basket, a pick under the basket, right? The guy ran out and fouled Tobias, that should have nothing to do with the play. That's a second action. They missed the first one, you can't call that one, that's not what the call was."
"I wasn't going to complain, but that was probably the most ridiculous game I've ever been a part of. That's all I'll say about that game," Joel Embiid added after the game, telling reporters, "You can figure it" when asked what he was getting at.
And still — Harris undoubtedly left his mark on the game. On a night when the rest of their starting lineup shot a combined 15-for-50, Harris turned in an ultra-efficient 21 points on 7-for-9 shooting, hitting five of the seven threes he attempted. It is on some level a reflection of the sort of season he is having, Harris effectively re-writing the book on who he is and what to expect out of him.
The story is familiar to most dedicated Sixers fans. Harris is a talented, versatile offensive player who nonetheless couldn't find the right place in their ecosystem. His percentages have been at least decent throughout his time here, but it often felt like he was not suited to play the role required of him next to a ball-dominant Embiid, a non-shooting Ben Simmons, a down-year Al Horford, and so on down the line. Open looks turned into contested looks as Harris deliberated with the ball, stalling an offense that often had to work hard to generate quality looks.
When the James Harden trade was made last season, Harris saw the writing on the wall and adjusted quickly, increasing his shooting volume down the stretch of last year. He doubled down this offseason, putting more time and focus into quick catch-and-shoot attempts than he ever had up to that point.
The results have been clear as day. He is shooting 42 percent from three on 5.5 attempts per game, and the bulk of his three-point attempts have come on quick releases. Per NBA tracking data, 88.9% of his threes have come on a touch time of fewer than two seconds. It lines up with what the eye test tells us, that Harris is shooting quicker and more often than any other point in his Sixers tenure.
"That was going to be the biggest thing to really help this group but also to help myself with the amount of talent we have," Harris said Monday. "Just to have these nights but also know and to will myself through all year, to be able to go five for seven, six for eight, whatever it may be, you got to be willing to take them and take them at a high level. I'm always looking for them in the flow of a game."
Half of the battle, perhaps more than half, is the mental side of the game. Harris can go from a featured player on a shorthanded night to a pure role player in the fully-loaded lineup, waiting long stretches of time between shot attempts. After his second made three of the game at the six-minute mark of the first quarter, Harris would not get another shot attempt until early in the third quarter. His lone make of the fourth quarter was essentially an accident, Embiid fumbling his dribble before batting the ball over to Harris in desperation with the shot clock winding down. It's a tricky place to be for Harris to be. He so often cites the value of being in the flow of the offense, which is the opposite of what he's asked to do for this group.
"Going four, five minutes and not getting it, then the ball swings and you're making it, that's hard," Rivers said Monday. "That's really hard. He stays read, so very happy with him."
Drilling the mechanics has helped, with Harris turning a catch-think-shoot process into a simple catch-and-shoot process. And Harris says now that he prepares for each game knowing what's expected of him, which bleeds into the work he does as a student and practitioner.
"If I could, I would take 15 of them," Harris said Monday. "That's just the mentality and work I put in on all the off days and during the season, watching film, seeing very little details. How passes are coming in the flow of the game, the amount of time from one three to the next three, all those types of things going into preparation for the game. To be able to make those shots, the timing of them, it's great stuff that I was fortunate to get on top of this summer and even last year."
"If you threw me out there two years ago I wouldn't be able to get going because that wasn't a mentality for me, of just catching and shooting really fast... at first it was tough, but now I kind of have changed my mentality towards it, and just say like, okay, if that's the case, that's the situation, how do you be the best at that? That's always my approach after every game."
That mentality has been critical for the Sixers, who have put up blistering numbers with an adjusted starting lineup. According to Cleaning The Glass, the five-man group of Embiid/Tucker/Harris/Melton/Harden is outscoring opponents by 21.1 points per 100 possessions, posting elite numbers on both ends of the ball. Also worth noting — lineups with Embiid/Harden/Harris are in the 97th percentile overall (+12.9 points per 100), and if you filter for the Embiid/Harden lineups without Harris, the numbers go off of a cliff (38th percentile, -2.0 points per 100 possessions). At a minimum, we can say he is actively helping their stars in his role this season, something that hasn't always been the case even as he has amassed good counting stats.
He is doing what the fans, the team, and his detractors have always wanted him to do while continuing to do the things he was already appreciated for. If that holds up, it helps fortify the group, and pushes concerns about his contract and would-be trades off to the side.
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