Detroit Pistons’ Tobias Harris gets national love for sixth man of the year
Detroit Pistons’ forward Tobias Harris has been awesome coming off of the bench this season. How good has he been? Well, according to one national pundit, he’s got a “sneaky good” case for sixth man of the year.
The Detroit Pistons’ have been one of the most up and down teams in the NBA this season. However, there has been one form of consistency on the team–Tobias Harris.
Since moving to the bench, not only has Harris been a consistent scoring threat, but the Pistons’ bench unit has seem tremendous improvements in efficiency, while helping keep the team overall in the playoff race.
Harris’ contributions has ESPN’s Marc Stein wondering if Harris could win the sixth man of the year award.
"Allow us to train our lens on Motown, where Tobias Harris has quietly emerged as perhaps the most credible threat to the Houston duo’s presumed duopoly in the Sixth Man race.Harris was moved into a reserve role by Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy right around the start of the second trimester and, after a brief return to the starting lineup, returned to the bench for good Jan. 23. In the 17 games since he became a full-time sixth man, Detroit has gone 9-8 to cling to the No. 8 seed in the East, with Harris shooting nearly 52 percent from the floor and averaging 16.7 points per game as a sub.Which leaves Harris trailing only Williams (18.7 PPG) and Gordon (17.2 PPG) in terms of bench scorers this season.…when we laser in specifically on trimester 2, during which he was largely deployed as a sixth man, Harris has a sneaky-good case. In those last 17 games, for example, Detroit has been better on both ends of the court with Harris on the floor, posting a net efficiency of plus-4.5 points per 100 possessions when he plays compared to minus-4.9 points per 100 possessions when he doesn’t."
Stein mentions in the article that Lou Williams and Eric Gordon–the front runners for the award–could get into each other’s way since they play on the same team. While that thought does hold some merit, I would be shocked if Harris ultimately ended up winning the award, particularly since Williams and Gordon are on a substantially more successful team.
That said, if the Pistons were some how able to be more consistent end up in say, the fifth or sixth seed in the East–and if Harris continues his efficiency–I could see there being a strong case for Harris.
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What do you think Pistons fans? Does Harris have a case for the sixth man of the year award?