Tobias Harris could be running more pick and roll

Tobias Harris said coach Scott Skiles may use him more in pick and rolls unlocking a relatively unused part of the Magic’s previous offense.

A lot has already been written about Tobias Harris and the new contract he received from the Orlando Magic. I dug into how we might have been underselling Harris and what his potential could be now that he has signed that massive extension. Brett went into how the numbers might hide what we see with Harris and the struggles he has particularly on the defensive end.

Harris remains a divisive player no matter how you cut it.

And he will remain an important one for the Magic moving forward. How he improves and how he adjusts to the new coaching staff will determine likely whether his career is a success or not, much less his fit with the Magic in the long run.

Harris has heard the criticisms of it. His response led Zach Lowe’s article on Harris and the problem of the high scorer/bad team player that was on Grantland on Tuesday:

"“It’s always, ‘Oh, why doesn’t he pass more?’ And everybody wants to talk about my defense. I’m not the best defensive player. I’m not gonna tell it to you like that. But if we were winning more games, people would talk about me differently.”"

Harris definitely wants the notoriety that his numbers seem to warrant and deserve. Certainly if they were on a better team. He seems like he feels trapped by the weight of the good player/bad team label. And the only way to change that is for his team to improve.

Yes, his passing has been bad. As I noted in my post on Harris, he rarely creates opportunities for others. The scoring that comes from his plays come from himself overwhelmingly more often than not.

But, in some fairness, Harris also is not put in a lot of playmaking opportunities.

That may change this upcoming season. Harris told Lowe that among the changes he is expecting this season is for Scott Skiles to put him in more pick and roll situations:

"Harris and Skiles have already spent time together at the team’s practice facility, and Harris says Skiles has promised to let him run more pick-and-rolls — a change that could juice up his assist numbers. Harris laughed off the idea that he holds any grudge toward Skiles for mostly nailing him to the bench during their time together in Milwaukee. “We never had any problems,” Harris says. “He pushes me hard. I’m ready for that. When I heard the news we hired him, my first reaction was, ‘I’m excited.’”"

Yes, that would be another public denial of any rift between Harris and Skiles stemming from his days in Milwaukee. It seems the question keeps coming up and the answers keep denying any problems. We will see once the season starts.

But this other idea of getting Harris more involved in pick and rolls is an interesting one in Harris’ continuing development.

His 8.8 percent assist rate is pretty low. He was one of just two players in the league with a usage rate greater than 22 percent and an assist rate lower than nine percent while playing at least 2300 minutes in 2015 (Andre Drummond was the other).

There are not many high-usage guys with so few assists.

When you look at the number of opportunities Harris had as the ball handler in pick and rolls last year, you do not find a whole lot.

According to NBA.com’s player tracking data, the Magic used Harris as the ball handler in pick and rolls just 12.8 percent of the time. Maurice Harkless was nearly used more in pick and rolls as the ball handler (12.4 percent).

However, Harris had the highest points per possession on the team as the ball handler in pick and rolls — 0.85 points per possession. He shot 44.4 percent off these plays on 124 field goal attempts.

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In limited chances, Harris was actually pretty effective as the ball handler. For reference, Victor Oladipo posted 0.75 points per possession as the ball handler in pick and rolls and Elfrid Payton came in at 0.66 points per possession.

Could this become a larger part of what the Magic do on offense?

Certainly Harris’ offense, as we have gone over exhaustively this week, has a lot of room for improvement. He tends to let the ball stick in his hands too much. And much of his jump shots actually come from the flow of the offense. His spot-up shooting improved dramatically in the 2015 season, especially from beyond the arc.

A Harris pick and roll will not be nearly as effective if Harris cannot distribute the ball. He is in attack mode so much, getting the ball in the basket is all he thinks about. That is an error sometimes for a young player. But a good place to start.

Harris can score. That has been about all that can be proven. Scoring efficiently and in a way to make his team better is the next step.

Maybe the pick and roll will be how Harris begins to do that.

Next: How Tobias Harris can become more like Carmelo Anthony