Tobias Harris’ free agency pitch

What is the right price?

This has been the $12 million question. Or $13 million. Or $15 million.

Nobody seems to know how much money he should get this summer. The increasing salary cap that will come starting next summer certainly will play a role. Teams might be willing to spend a little more, knowing the cap hit will become less impactful over time.

The infographic tries to compare Harris to Gordon Hayward, Chandler Parsons, Draymond Green and DeMarre Carroll by PER. Green and Carroll are both competitor free agents. Green likely will get the max offer sheet while Carroll seems to be a bit more of a role player, but had a bigger stage with the Hawks than Harris. Carroll will likely get a contract slightly less than Harris’ but still north of $10 million per year, it would seem.

The recent free agencies of Hayward and Parsons might serve a better example.

First, Harris posted a 16.7 PER this year, about his career average. Hayward posted a 16.5 PER and Chandler Parsons a 15.3. Of course, most people know PER is an imperfect stat and many disregard it completely.

Where Hayward and Parsons separate themselves is with their 3-point shooting. As noted, Harris is an improving 3-point shooter, but not a great one yet. Parsons shot 37.3 percent and Hayward 36.5 percent last year, both at least four percentage points better than Harris’ career average (eds. note: thanks to a reader for pointing this out, Harris shot 36.4 percent from beyond the arc, which is comparable to Parsons and Hayward last year, however his career numbers are much lower than both Hayward and Parsons. Harris is still proving himself). That is a big mark — the difference between respect and a guy you can sag off of.

Hayward is also a borderline all star, producing what Harris produces at a much more efficient clip.

Either way, it seems these are two players you could try to compare Harris’ value to.

In July of last year, Hayward was offered a max offer sheet from the Charlotte Hornets which the Jazz matched. It was reportedly a four-year deal for nearly $73 million (starting at about $14.75 million kicking in this season). Parsons signed a three-year deal worth a little more than $46 million (starting at $14.7 million).

If this is indeed who Harris wants to compare himself to, it seems reasonable to offer him something along those lines, especially with the cap increasing. Anyone imagining Harris would get what the Magic reportedly offered him in the summer or even what Nikola Vucevic got in the summer.

He will get a contract offer likely starting at that $14 million per year mark. There seems to be no avoiding this, especially with teams seemingly willing to commit long-term money with the cap getting set to increase.

Next: The Final Pitch