Retrospective: Where Does Tobias Harris Rank In All-Time Small Forwards?
3. Tobias Harris
And here we are, our only current player on the slide show.
It is a little strange that current players have ranked so high on such a bad team, maybe. Victor Oladipo cracked the No. 3 spot, Elfrid Payton the No. 6, and Nikola Vucevic the No. 3 spot. And now Harris at No. 3.
So, if the Magic have four starters in the top all-time at their respective positions, why is the team so bad?
That is just it, the individual talents that currently make up the Magic are very good. It is just not a good team. There is no identity, and players are still trying to establish themselves within what was a changing and chaotic offense.
Despite all this, Tobias Harris has done so.
He has proven himself to be an effective scorer from the wing spot, and he was acquired at the cost of a player who was likely on his way out anyway (J.J. Redick, who did not even re-sign with Milwaukee after costing the team the underused Harris).
Harris has a number of shortcomings. He is an average defender at best. He does not naturally fit at the 3 or the 4 spots, making him a classic “tweener.”
But he is a good scorer, and that was what enabled him to spend just one year at Tennessee before declaring for the draft. He has improved his two seasons in Orlando, too, becoming a better 3-point shooter and more of a small forward. It appears that he will likely spend the bulk of his NBA career at the 3-spot.
Harris posted 17.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game this season while shooting 36.4 percent from 3-point range. While it would be ideal if he could lift those percentages into the 38-40 percent range, at this point he is more than passable.
Harris scored 20 points or more in 21 games this season, and he had his season high of 34 points in a win over the L.A. Lakers on Feb 6. He shot an outstanding 14 of 18 from the floor that game while playing 45 minutes in a 103-97 win.
Harris has the potential to be a lot like Rudy Gay, which would warrant giving him the expected $12-$14 million this summer.
While he does have his shortcomings defensively, better team defense will help cover a lot of it. When Harris and other Magic perimeter players are beat off the dribble, there is little behind them to cut off their man, change a shot, block a shot and ultimately get a stop.
To put all that blame on Harris having mediocre lateral foot movement is not really fair, because he is ultimately one defender of five that are failing to stop the opposing offense.
What may hurt most is that the best scorers tend to be small forwards, and Harris is not a plus-defender. Balancing that out with a premier defender capable of covering both 3s and 4s might be the way to go. And it may already have happened if Aaron Gordon continues to develop.
In other words, Harris is a great scorer and all his shortcomings can be amended with the right personnel around him.
Next: The best long-distance shooter in Magic lore