Tobias Harris reportedly reaches 2-year, $31 million deal to join Spurs
Tobias Harris, the 15-year NBA veteran, has agreed to sign a two-year, $31 million deal to join the San Antonio Spurs, according to Yahoo Sports' Kelly Iko. The deal is fully guaranteed, too.
Harris, who turns 34 years old in mid-July, averaged 13.3 points (on 47/37/87 shooting splits), 5.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 27.7 minutes per game this past season for a Detroit Pistons team that won 60 games and entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the East.
Harris has played in 81 career playoff games, averaging a 17-8-3 (close to what he produced for the Pistons this postseason), but has never played for a team that has gotten out of the second round. He made four Eastern Conference semifinals with the Philadelphia 76ers from 2019-23, and then again made it with Detroit this past season.
The Pistons nearly made the Eastern Conference finals this past season, taking the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games. Harris scored five points on 0-for-6 shooting from the field in 23 minutes of a 125-94 loss to the Cavs in Game 7, an unfortunate reminder of Detroit's need for secondary scoring. The New York Knicks swept Cleveland in the conference finals.
Harris was a serviceable third option from the All-Star pick-and-roll tandem of Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren. Cunningham made the All-NBA First Team this past season and looked every bit the part in the playoffs, despite a late-season collapsed lung.
The same could not be said of Duren, a member of the All-NBA Third Team, who went from averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds per game during the regular season to almost half of that in the playoffs. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise successful season.
Still, Duren is only 22 years old, and Cunningham is 24, so the veteran presence of Harris helped steer the Pistons to their 60 wins, even if they could still use some offensive juice.
Harris will now get to join a Spurs team fresh off their deepest playoff run in more than a decade. Star Victor Wembanyama led the franchise past the Oklahoma City Thunder in the West and got them to the NBA Finals, but they ended up falling to the New York Knicks. Harris should be able to provide a solid veteran presence alongside Wembanyama over the next two seasons to try and push them the rest of the way.
