Tobias Harris is feeling the responsibility of improving and helping make the Orlando Magic better. He said the hardship of the last two years will help.
Things have settled down fort he Orlando Magic some with the offseason moves ending. Tobias Harris inked a reported four-year, $64 million contract and is beginning to have to answer some questions about whether he will live up to that contract.
Fairly or unfairly, Harris has long been cast as the outsider of the Magic’s young core — the most expendable and hard to fit into what the Magic are trying to do.
All that consternation seems moot. His new long-term salary almost guarantees Harris will remain an integral part of the team.
That responsibility is not lost on the 23-year-old forward. As has begun talking about his new role, the expectations around him now and the upcoming season, Harris has echoed what many on the Magic have said about this season — it needs to be the time for the Magic to turn things around.
For Harris, it seems he has taken special ownership of this task as now the highest paid player on the team and a team leader among the team’s core group of young players. They have grown up together and for Harris he sees now as the time to show that maturity, as he noted in a wide-ranging Q&A with ESPN’s Scoop Jackson:
"Scoop: Now that everyone is secure and roles are defined. You, Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton, Nicola Vucevic [sic] … man. I know how I look at it and what I see, but how do you all look at yourselves, and what do you see?Harris: We see that same thing you do. We’re very confident as a team, as a group. We have great pieces. It’s not really about “we need this guy or we need that guy,” you know, right now with us it’s all about growth. And that comes with guys going into their fourth year, into their third year, into their second year and getting some experience. It only helps us. We have expectations for this team, for each other really. Individually we are all looking at the next guy like, “You gotta be back here ready. You gotta be back here shooting better, more physical, in better shape.” Pushing each other. When we are away we are always working, like “Yeah, I gotta be ready because this is the year we can really make a splash and do something big.”"
Harris went on to say the team showed flashes of what it could become at times last year. They just let too many games they should have won slip away for whatever reason. Youth seemed to be the main perpetrator as the team did not have the “mental strength” to close those games out and stem the tide of defeats.
The hope then is the team has grown up some and learned from that experience, gaining focus in all the changes that have occurred with the team this offseason and the struggles of the last two years.
There is experience that needs to be learned from losing. The question for the Magic is whether they take those lessons and take the next step forward.
Harris certainly seems ready to lead and be a big part of that change.
Next: Orlando Magic's offseason puts trust in current roster