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The Detroit Pistons are, perhaps, the biggest disaster in the NBA right now.
Detroit has the worst record in the league by far (44 losses) since 2020 and doesn’t appear to have any path to relevance any time soon.
And to make matters worse, the Pistons are now turning to Tobias Harris, of all people, to try and lead the turnaround.
Detroit signed Harris to a two-year, $52 million contract at the start of free agency.
Now Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer reports that the organization believes that Harris can help lead its young players forward.
“Outside of George and two-time champion wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the only other major beneficiaries on the open market who changed teams were Tobias Harris — whom Detroit, sources said, believes can serve as a foundational leader for the Pistons’ rebuild from the NBA cellar,” Fischer wrote.
Maybe the Pistons know a different Tobias Harris than the rest of us do.
This is his second stint with the organization. During his previous stint, he went a combined 75-82 over parts of three seasons. Which, to be fair, is significantly better than the Pistons have been in recent years!
But Harris has spent much of his career accumulating good, not great, stats on bad teams.
He finally got his chance to play on a good team when the Philadelphia 76ers mistakenly gave him a five-year, $180 million contract.
Harris never lived up to that contract and routinely shrunk in the playoffs as the team’s third or even fourth option at times.
So when fans saw that the Pistons, who are woefully far from figuring things out, are counting on Tobias Harris to help, they reacted accordingly.
“I’m so sorry Pistons fans,” one person tweeted.
“I’m sorry, who is gonna lead them out of through the rebuild,” asked another.
Harris isn’t a bad basketball player. And by all accounts, he’s a great teammate. So maybe Detroit is onto something. But that is a lot of money to pay someone to be the team dad.