Three Improvements Tobias Harris Can Make to become ‘More Melo’
Time to deliver
It really, actually is — contracts come with expectations.
Harris is now going to receive $16 million on average over the next four seasons, and that contract comes with the requisite talent to lead a team, both in scoring and off the floor.
Harris’ skill set makes him probably the most explosive and dangerous scorer on Orlando’s roster, and he is the guy teams will worry about and make the effort to shut down.
Overall, Harris is still trying to become a more complete player, and while Anthony may not be the hallmark of that notion, he is a very complete offensive player. He is a player whose talents are similar enough to Harris to use as a model for what Harris can become on that end of the court.
More mid-range shooting, aggressive offensive board work and creating shots from isolation are on the check list for Harris.
These are the three elements that are lying between his 17 points per game and Anthony’s 24 to 26.
It is a quantum leap to reach that level for sure, but just on the basis of the offensive board work alone Harris has a lot of his work cut out for him.
Harris got paid like a star, and now it is time to produce like one. It is time to be more than a “poor man’s” Melo, in other words.
This progression likely does not all occur in the span of one season, but Harris needs to at least eclipse the 20-points-per-game mark this season and that can actually be done on the basis of small improvements just this year.