Tobias Harris shined, but the bench is not where he belongs
Tobias Harris was terrific off the bench for the Detroit Pistons scoring a season high 26 points and grabbing seven rebounds, but that shouldn’t be his role going forward.
Tobias Harris is one of my favorite players on the Detroit Pistons. Yes he’s a good offensive player and that’s always fun, but the thing that really attracts me to him is he keeps his mouth shut and just plays.
The Pistons don’t have too many of those players, which is a big reason why they’ve had such a fall out.
Instead of benching one of the players who was causing the most ruckus, Van Gundy elected to bench one of his most consistent and professional players due to his defensive struggles.
As expected, Harris took it like a champ and played his butt off.
"“That’s one thing that I’ve learned throughout my career,” Harris said. “Certain decisions, as a player, you shut up (over) and put your big boy pants on and just play. That’s the bottom line. Do what you can to help your team. That’s what I try to do.”"
Van Gundy was pleased needless to say.
"“Tobias played great. That was a very, very professional response from a high-character guy,” Van Gundy said. “He was disappointed about not starting and has his season high. Plus, got seven rebounds. That’s a professional, professional performance.”"
Van Gundy’s lineup change came down to one thing, defense. The odd man out became Tobias Harris, who was probably the Pistons second worst defender, just behind Reggie Jackson.
I respect Van Gundy’s decision, but disagree with the conclusion.
The Pistons real issue was offense. More specifically, their lack of ball movement.
Players weren’t getting the ball and most of the blame fell on Jackson. As a result, players were less motivated to play defense–keep in mind none of this ever effected Harris’ effort on either end of the court.
Keep in mind that prior to the bickering between players, the Pistons were the second best defense in the league with Harris in the lineup.
Instead, Van Gundy should have kept Harris in the starting lineup for his offense and professionalism and moved Marcus Morris to the bench.
Harris has more long-term potential and the Pistons’ starters need the extra offense.
More to the point, Morris’ two way game would be a nice fit on the second unit. And, Morris would get to play more minutes with Ish Smith, who he thinks is the best teammate ever.
I’ll conclude by saying this. Andre Drummond may have been a big reason the Pistons’ were focusing too much on personal issues and not enough on basketball, but would it shock anyone if Morris didn’t play a big hand in that too? After all, he is biased towards Smith, based on his comments from the past.
Next: Brian Windhorst says the Pistons are disappointing
I think Van Gundy got this one wrong and I don’t think that too often. I hope he swaps Harris for Morris sooner than later. It’s the right thing to do in the short and long-term.