Philadelphia 76ers: 3 reasons Tobias Harris can be an All-Star

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Philadelphia 76ers, Tobias Harris (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /

3 reasons Harris can be an All-Star: Shallow frontcourt depth in the Eastern Conference

Record and skills alone won’t be enough to get Harris is first All-Star selection. The other factor that will help him is that the frontcourt depth in the East isn’t ridiculously deep. Especially when factoring in team records as well.

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Durant, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, Bam Adebayo, and Giannis Antetokounmpo are virtual locks to make the All-Star selection spots unless an injury occurs. There are some solid contenders following them as well.

Middleton, Jaylen Brown, and Jimmy Butler are near locks as well, but Butler and Brown can be listed as a backcourt player, so there is some flexibility. Then there are players like Domantas Sabonis, Julius Randle, Gordon Hayward, Jerami Grant, Nikola Vucevic, Andre Drummond, and Pascal Siakam also in the running with Harris.

Team record and teammates will have a big impact on whether these players will get a spot on the All-Star spot. For sake of argument let’s take Butler and Brown out of this equation because they could be listed as backout court players. The East already has four locks plus Middleton for the front court spot. That leaves one front court position and two free spots.

Players from losing records don’t usually get All-Star game appearances, just ask Bradley Beal from last year. That means Grant and Siakam are currently out of the running as of now because the Detroit Pistons and the Toronto Raptors are the two worst teams in the East.

Players whose teams have around a 0.500 record or competing for the last couple of playoff spots are Vucevic, Drummond, Randle, and Hayward. Depending on what direction their team’s trend within the next couple of weeks will have a big impact on if they are in the running for an All-Star spot.

That leaves Sabonis as the only known threat to take an All-Star spot from Harris. Sabonis made the All-Star game last season, the Indian Pacers are currently the fourth seed in the East as well. The only thing working against Sabonis is that he has two teammates in Brogdon and Victor Oladipo who have All-Star cases as well. They may cancel out his bid to make the game.

Drummond could be in a similar boat as Sabonis if the Cleveland Cavaliers do trend in a winning direction and that’s due to the fact that Sexton is playing like an All-Star as well. Sexton could easily cancel out Drummond’s bid to be an All-Star.

There’s an opportunity for open spots for Harris to get depending on how things go within the next couple of weeks. However, there’s a window of opportunity for Harris to slide into an All-Star spot.

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Harris’ efficiency, the Philadelphia 76ers being a top team in the East and the lack of legit depth in the East’s frontcourt could allow the Sixers’ forward to earn his first All-Star appearance this year.