How Tobias Can Find His Role On New Look Sixers
Stuck in His Old Ways
James Harden’s chemistry with Embiid and Maxey has been phenomenal, but Tobias has been the odd man out so far after two games. The Sixers acquiring James Harden has completely shaken up the roster and changed up a lot of players roles on the team. The player whose role has been affected the most since the trade is Tobias Harris, who for most of last year and this year was considered the second scoring option on the team. Obviously Maxey and Curry were always contributing in the scoring column, but with Harris being paid a max deal, was definitely someone the offense would purposefully run plays for. Tobias scored most of his points on post ups and getting to the rim after a ball screen, but those types of plays no longer make sense.
Tobias needs to find new ways to be an effective scorer and instead of making James Harden adapt his game to Tobias. The Sixers have looked dangerous offensively and there is no reason for the other players to take a step back to allow Tobias to succeed. Instead, it is on Tobias Harris to figure out his new role and adapt his game to be more compatible with Harden.
New Offensive Focus
The current offensive game of Tobias Harris has been focused on isolation, post up’s, and having him initiate pick and rolls. He needs to find ways to be effective without the ball and stop relying on these plays that have to be specifically drawn up for him. The easiest way for him to do that is obviously work on his catch and shoot threes because with Harden and Embiid drawing double teams, he is going to get a lot of looks from three but he needs to be able to hit them. Tobias has a tendency to pump fake a lot of open threes and settle for bad shots, which is absolutely brutal to watch as a fan. He needs to find a Kevin Love type role when he was on Cleveland with Kyrie and LeBron, and find his way to impact the game in a new way.
Tobias can also be the one setting screens for both Maxey and Harden when Embiid is not on the court to help get him easy buckets at the rim throughout the game. Harden was able to get a washed up Blake Griffin get easy looks at the rim, he can easily do the same for Tobias. There has been large drops offs in the offensive output when Harden is out of the game and if the Sixers are going to get to the championship, someone is going to need to step up. The Sixers cannot have Tobias scoring less than 10 points a game and win a championship, they will need him to step up.
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Categorized:Sixers