Tobias Harris‘ role — and position — with the Philadelphia 76ers has fluctuated since the team initially traded for him from the Los Angeles Clippers in February 2019. When Harris first came to Philadelphia, he joined a starting five that already consisted of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler and J.J. Redick. In that group, Harris served as the de facto small forward and was typically tasked with guarding the opponents’ player at that position. He was looked at as the team’s third, or potentially even fourth option on offense behind Embiid, Butler and sometimes Simmons.
In the three full seasons since, Harris’ role has been anything but consistent. The following summer, the Sixers completely retooled. They lost Butler and Redick in free agency, and replaced them with Al Horford and Josh Richardson in the first five. For Harris, this meant that he would remain at the small forward spot, and also that he would be leaned on more heavily for production on the offensive end in Butler’s absence.
When this version of the Sixers flamed out in the first round of the playoffs, the roster was reshaped again. Horford was traded for Danny Green, and the team also landed Seth Curry via trade from the Dallas Mavericks. With this new iteration of the Sixers starters, Harris shifted up to the power forward spot, where he spent the bulk of the past two seasons.
Now, following Philadelphia’s offseason addition of P.J. Tucker, it looks like Harris will again shift back to small forward. Luckily, he’s accustomed to adjusting at this point. Plus, he doesn’t see much of a difference between the two forward spots in today’s NBA.
“Doc [Rivers] says the three and the four are pretty identical,” Harris said at Philadelphia’s media day this week. “Probably the only adjustment would be who you’re guarding defensively. Last year, I was guarding twos, threes, fours. So, I don’t think it’s that much of an adjustment, to be honest. They’re identical positions.
“When I played in L.A., myself and [Danilo] Gallinari were the three, four and we never really labeled ourselves as three or four, it was just forwards,” Harris added. “So I think that’s kind of the same adjustment here. Obviously, you’ll see what positions we’re in offensively as a group, but in terms of playing the three or the four, they’re pretty identical, to be honest.”
In addition to switching his literal position, Harris is also…
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