For Tobias Harris it’s about rhythm
Tobias Harris has long been an intriguing offensive talent. But how best to get him to produce consistently remains a huge question.
Call Tobias Harris the greatest mystery on the Magic. Maybe even in the NBA.
On one hand, here is a solid player with a solid scoring average — 16.8 points per game entering Sunday’s game — a guy with a drive and determination to improve and a pure scorer’s mentality.
On the other hand, this is a player that has failed to become an elite scorer consistently and is not a great consistent shooter (46.1 percent) and is average at best on defense and on the glass. He is not someone on the cusp of stardom when his abilities call for it.
And all this entering an uncertain free agency period.
There are those moments though when Tobias Harris is really good.
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He scored at least 10 points in the first 38 games of the season, the longest such streak of his career. Harris has been more consistent offensively than at any point in his career this season. But ever since suffering an injury in mid-January, Harris has been knocked off his game.
Orlando brought him off the bench for the first five games and he struggled getting himself in rhythm. He averaged 10.8 points per game and shot 33.9 percent from the floor. Some of that could have been from his needing to get back to being healthy. He went back into the starting lineup and started scoring again.
His splits between starting and coming off the bench are clear. Harris is more effective starting games.
“I really don’t think I’m struggling with my shot,” Harris said back in January while he was coming off the bench. “It’s more of a rhythm thing. This game is about confidence and rhythm. . . . It’s a process. Just like starting is a process. Any time you start and the lineup changes, that’s a process. You’ve got to get used to the next guy. I take accountability for myself to get myself in the right rhythm coming off the bench.”
More troubling is Harris’ disappearing act in the second half the last two games.
Harris scored in double figures in both the past two games in the first half. He totaled only one point in the second halves of those games.
For the season, Harris averages 8.5 points per game and 48.2 percent shooting in the first half compared to 8.2 points per game and 43.8 percent shooting in the second half. Harris can keep the production, but is not necessarily keeping the efficiency. Harris is still finding a way to fit in with the offense and with a team that can be successful.
No one could argue that he did not come up big though in Friday’s win. Victor Oladipo found Tobias Harris open in the corner for a wide-open 3-pointer that gave the Magic the lead for good late in the fourth quarter. Harris’ fourth-quarter exploits are well noted.
What is important for Harris it seems for him to be effective is that he find a nice groove.
And that groove can carry over between games — he has shot better than 50 percent in 22 games this season and 13 of them have followed or were followed by another 50 percent game. Harris has 14 20-point games with six occurring as part of three streaks of two consecutive games.
The part of Tobias Harris’ problem with his future is that it is so hard to figure out what kind of game he is going to have. The Magic have to force him into rhythm at occasion — James Borrego has opted to set up plays for Harris early in games to get him going early and get his confidence up.
No one ever doubts Harris’ desire or work ethic. The question is how to get him consistently providing efficient offense. That maybe be a question for the summer.
Harris will put in the work this summer and give himself his best opportunity the rest of this season.
“For me it’s going to be continuing to play as hard as I can every night,” Harris said. “Just keep playing hard and it will come around.”