Los Angeles Lakers: Realistic tier 2 free agents to target
By Ethan Temkin
Tobias Harris
Tobias Harris might be the quintessential Tier 2 player. He’s a reliable scoring option, a stout defender, a knockdown shooter from three, and can create in both on-ball and off-ball situations. As a primary scoring option on the Clippers, Harris averaged 20.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 2.9 assists, shooting 42% from three on just under five attempts a game.
Since being traded to Philadelphia, Harris’ numbers have dipped as a product of having to share the court with ball-dominant players in Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, and Ben Simmons.
Harris’ first year in the playoffs left a lot to be desired, as he struggled to score reliably but he still managed to contribute in other ways. His scoring dipped to only 15.5 points, but his rebounding and assists actually went up, to 9.1 rebounds, and four assists.
His performance was disappointing, but that’s to be expected from a player who’s only previous playoff experience was on a Detroit team that was swept by LeBron James in the first round back in 2016 when Harris was only 23 years old.
For the 76ers, they’re staring down an enormous tax-bill with both Harris and Butler as pending free agents in 2019, Ben Simmons‘ looming free-agency in 2021, and Embiid already on the books for around $30M/year through 2023. The 76ers will more than likely have to forgo signing one of Butler or Harris, and given Butler’s performance in the playoffs, he seems like the more likely candidate to stay in Philly.
Harris is a perfect plug-and-play player for this Lakers team and can provide the team with a reliable floor-spacer, who can open up the paint for LeBron James, give him another long-range threat to defer to, and take the more challenging defensive match-ups.
The most important trait about Harris is the fact that he’s still relatively young, at only 27 years old going into the 2019-2020 season, and still has plenty of room to improve as a player.
Signing Harris would also move Kyle Kuzma (if he isn’t traded this summer) to the bench, where I think he can actually thrive as a spark-plug, going up against weaker second units, covering his defensive deficiencies, while accentuating his offensive abilities.