While many things have gone wrong for the Philadelphia 76ers amid their incredible stale and flat launch to the 2024-25 season, it would be misplaced to pin them all to how they operated during the offseason. Armed with more ammunition that any other team, the front office set a grand vision, and faithfully went along with that to turn in the most eventful summer of any club in the league.
Some, if not most of their moves have not panned out at this juncture, but it is still too early to brand them as surefire flops. The 76ers have had to overcompensate and overtax their players by plugging them into bigger roles than what they expected due to injuries. The set-up they envisioned has not materialized yet.
The other part of their offseason, however, has been letting go of their previous deck. They entered the summer having the most outgoing free agents in the league by a mile, and boy did they make the right decision by ditching most of them.
Especially this one.
The 76ers were completely right about Tobias Harris
One of the biggest changes for the 76ers this season is the lack of Tobias Harris, who was a staple for the team for more than five seasons. A constant point of division among fans, the veteran was signed to a mammoth contract, only to expectedly fall short of meeting the attendant expectations.
Last summer, the 76ers and Harris finally parted, the latter settling for a smaller, yet still significant contract with the rebuilding Pistons. Detroit had a lot of money to spare, and while signing him may not be detrimental as much as it normally would, he has been pretty average by most standards for his new ball club.
Despite playing 32.2 minutes per outing, Harris is turning in just 13.7 points on a meager 43.9 percent shooting from the floor, including a below-average 33.3 percent conversion rate from three-point territory. He has not really moved the needle much for Detroit on the court, the bulk of his contributions being in the form of veteran leadership.
The Pistons may be just fine with that, but the 76ers would almost certainly be not had both camps found a way to extend their partnership to the tune of a much more reasonable contract. They didn’t, and it was perhaps the right resolution to a tandem going nowhere anyway, especially given the way his decline had commenced.
In the end, the Philadelphia 76ers certainly do not have any regrets letting go of Tobias Harris.