It’s time for the Pistons to unleash Tobias Harris

After doing everything that’s been asked of him and thriving every role thrust upon him in this challenging season, it’s time to unleash Tobias Harris as the star of the Detroit Pistons.

It’s not often an NBA team starts games with their best scorer and arguably best player on the bench, but the Detroit Pistons have done that in most games since late December. The Pistons needed to make a lineup change after Reggie Jackson came back from missing the first 21 games of the season with knee tendinitis, and due to the bench’s scoring inability Tobias Harris was moved from the starting lineup to the bench.

It was a move that made sense at the time and was predicted and endorsed by some (including myself). Many saw it as a demotion, as if Stan Van Gundy was scapegoating Harris for the failings of the starting lineup. Rather, it was utilizing their single most potent offensive weapon, one of the few players on the roster capable of creating his own offense and reliably getting his own shot in a manner that could unleash him best.

While Harris was the offensive focal point off the bench, he flourished. After all, Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond are on the first unit, and they need their touches.

Or do they?

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Jackson and Drummond are among the lowest-efficiency high-volume players in the NBA, but Tobias Harris has toiled in obscurity as among the highest-efficiency players in the league without the volume to match. Among all players with a true shooting percentage of 57% or higher, Harris is 26th across the league in usage, and third on his own team at just 21.7%.

Certainly playing with Jackson and Drummond thus far this season will lower his usage, but Ish Smith has been able to positively weaponize Harris. When the two have shared the floor this season, Harris is scoring 1.23 points per possession and 1.17 points per shot attempt. His usage with Smith is up a touch to 22.7% and is second to only Andre Drummond’s 24.2%. If you want a reason the bench unit has flourished with Smith, it’s because they have a high-efficiency scorer at their disposal.

It appears that the Pistons may be on to this trend as well. Since February 1st his usage is 22.8% (second only to Drummond’s 23.7%), regardless of whether Jackson or Smith are on the floor. Still, there remains one major stumbling block to his maximized utilization.

Tobias Harris should start, and there’s no reasonable debate about this.

While there could be an argument that Jon Leuer is a starter in name only, in practice this has not been true. In the 16 games Harris has started since the lineup change, he’s averaged 34 minutes per game. In the 28 games he’s come off the bench, he’s averaged 28 minutes. Harris isn’t a guy who the Pistons can afford to take minutes away from due to rotational minutiae or the odd Jon Leuer hot-hand game.

The Pistons have a  mediocre offense at best, and that offense is littered with low-efficiency mid-range jump shots from the likes of Leuer and Marcus Morris, post ups from Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson doing what 2017’s Reggie Jackson does. There should be no limit to the number of touches the Pistons force-feed to Tobias Harris.

This season is a lost cause. Going forward, the Pistons need to shuffle the deck, at least internally. Even if there are no major moves forthcoming this summer, the hierarchy of the roster has to be reordered. The organization is aware, as are the fans, that Andre Drummond is not likely to become the offensive force that it was hoped he could. Reggie Jackson may never regain his athleticism, and while he may learn to reinvent his game, in the meantime counting on him as an offensive force is a fool’s errand.

Next: It's time to shut Reggie Jackson down for the season

The Pistons need to reassess and place Tobias Harris (followed by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) at the top of the pecking order and build accordingly. The future may still be now for the Detroit Pistons, and that future is in Tobias Harris.