The month of April 2021 has had some interesting storylines for the Philadelphia 76ers. The addition of Anthony Tolliver, the Sixers embracing a four guard bench unit, and Joel Embiid returning to the MVP conversation. However, there was one storyline that went unnoticed this past month.
It was regarding starting power forward Tobias Harris. While it’s true that Harris missed some time in April due to a knee injury, it was the downtick in production that is the real storyline to focus on.
The Philadelphia 76ers’ power forward Tobias Harris’ play has cooled down?
Harris missed four games last month and three of which were in a row, but even before then a decline in his production could be seen in the beginning of the month. Before he missed his first game of that month against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Harris had been averaging 18 points per game which isn’t bad. However, considering before this month he had been averaging above 20 points per game on the year, it was a drop-off for sure.
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Even after the injuries, Harris had averaged 17.3 points during April. The good news for Philly fans is that this dip isn’t because of a decrease in his shooting percentage. On the season, he’s shooting 51.9 percent from the field and 40.8 percent from the 3-point line, whereas in April he shot 52.6 percent from the floor and 42.9 percent from deep.
Part of his drop in scoring is due to the injury, in the fact that he’s not playing as many minutes as he’s recovering still. For the season, he’s averaging 32.6 minutes, whereas in April he only played 27.9 minutes per game. Granted some of the cut-back in minutes are also due to some blowout victories and losses.
As a result of these reduced minutes he only attempted 12.8 field goals per game in April, versus 14.4 attempts on the year. While it would be awesome if Harris did average 20 points per game this year if he needs to cut back a little in order to be healthy for the postseason then so be it.
In the end, this dip in Harris’s production isn’t anything to be concerned about for the Philadelphia 76ers.