Philadelphia 76ers trade for Tobias Harris, how does he fit?

The Philadelphia 76ers shocked the NBA when they traded for Tobias Harris at 2 AM Wednesday morning. Let’s take a look at his fit on the team.

The saying goes that nothing good ever happens after 2 AM, yet the Philadelphia 76ers made a bold deal to acquire Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, and Mike Scott for Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, two first-round picks, and two second-round picks. Adrian Wojnarowski announced the deal at 2:17 in the morning, so the NBA world woke up to the blockbuster deal.

The Sixers have to wait and see whether this deal will prove beneficial, but on the surface, Harris will fill a lot of holes in Philly’s rotation. For starters, he knocks down threes at a 43.4 percent rate for the season, scoring a career-high 20.9 points per game and grabbing 7.9 boards, another career high.

Coach Brett Brown has wanted more shooters on his roster for a while, and though the Sixers lost Shamet to bring in Harris, the combo-forward hits three percent more of his shots from deep on 0.2 more attempts per game. Additionally, Harris has a much more diverse skill set, which will make the Sixers more dynamic on both ends of the floor.

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Harris can score from basically anywhere. He shoots well from deep and takes a little more than a quarter of his shots from mid-range. Mid-range shooting has effectively died in the NBA, but having a legitimate threat from there aside from Jimmy Butler can only help Philly when it comes to closing out games and keeping defenses on their toes.

Brown took a naive approach to integrating Butler after Elton Brand traded for him in November, so Brown should have learned from his mistakes and hopefully will use Harris in pick-and-roll and isolation situations from the start. But Harris and Butler both hit over 40 percent of their catch-and-shoot threes,

The University of Tennessee product has always split time between small forward and power forward, and his flexibility will help the team as Brown decides how to adjust his rotations with the new additions over the next few games. Standing at 6-foot-9, 235 pounds, he has the size to act as a screener or a ball handler in the pick-and-roll, which the coach has run more often in recent weeks.

Harris is one of two NBA starters to post a field goal percentage higher than 49 percent, a three-point percentage higher than 43 percent, and a free throw percentage higher than 85 percent. Only Steph Curry has had a season as efficient as Harris, and adding the 26-year-old gives Philly a high-volume shooter, as he takes 15.5 shots per game, and a high-volume scorer. Further proving his efficiency, he sits among nine players who boast a true shooting percentage over 60 while taking over 15 shots per game.

The Philadelphia 76ers rank eighth in the league in both field goal percentage and three-point percentage, and while that puts them up with the best teams in the league, the arrival of Harris should push those numbers even higher.

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Harris’ versatility and shooting ability make him stand out in today’s NBA, particularly because he has plenty of size. The Sixers needed someone who can create his own shot, and Elton Brand got just that for his team when he dealt for Harris.