How Pistons' Tobias Harris went from high-paid punchline to playoff performer

How Pistons' Tobias Harris went from high-paid punchline to playoff performer

Harris has scored 20 points in seven straight playoff games, and it's not a stretch to call him Detroit's postseason savior

By Brad Botkin May 8, 2026 at 4:50 pm ET • 5 min read

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Tobias Harris has been a good NBA player for a long time. Just not good enough to warrant the some $300 million he's made over a 15-year career. He became a punchline when the 76ers were basically boxed into paying him $180 million in 2019. Over the next five years, he was the poster boy for albatross contracts. 

Solid as he was (basically a 20 PPG scorer), there was just no way for his game to be properly appreciated through the prism of his paycheck. But now, in Detroit, the perception has flipped. In 2024, he signed a two-year deal for $52 million (a fortune in real life but pretty basic money in the NBA), and so far in these playoffs, he's outperforming that deal as something of a savior for a Pistons team that has gone from down 3-1 in the first round to up 2-0 in the conference semifinals. 

With the Pistons desperate for a second scorer next to Cade Cunningham (Jalen Duren is down almost 50% from his 19.3 PPG in the regular season), Harris hasn't just stepped up to the plate. He has knocked the job out of the park by scoring at least 20 points in Detroit's last seven games. 

Playoff Tobi

Tobias Harris' stats in the last seven playoff games

GamePointsField goalsResultGame 3 vs. Orlando238-16L, 113-105

Game 4 vs. Orlando

20

8-17

L, 94-88

Game 5 vs. Orlando

23

9-18

W, 116-109

Game 6 vs. Orlando

22

7-20

W, 93-79

Game 7 vs. Orlando

30

11-18

W, 116-94

Game 1 vs. Cleveland

20

6-14

W, 111-101

Game 2 vs. Cleveland

21

9-16

W, 107-97

Three things:

1. This is the longest 20-point streak of Harris' career. 
2. This is the longest 20-point streak in playoff history by a player who failed to record even two straight 20-point games during the regular season. 
3. Harris and Cunningham are now just the third duo in league history to each score at least 20 points over at least a five-game postseason winning streak. The other two? LeBron and D-Wade, and Shaq and Kobe. 

Again, Harris' name just looks out of place in this kind of company. He's better than the "journeyman" tag indicates, but that's probably the truest measure of his merit. Over 15 seasons he has played for five teams and been traded four times. He's never been an All-Star. Never scored 40 points in a game. Never been past the second round of the playoffs. 

If Tobias Harris is your second-best player (or at least your No. 2 offensive option), prevailing NBA wisdom says you aren't going very far. And maybe the Pistons aren't. Maybe the Cavs will come back to beat them, and Harris will just add another second-round loss to his résumé. 

But right now, if Cunningham is the constant, it's looking like Harris is going to be the reason why Detroit is going to be playing for a conference crown in a few weeks. Yes, Detroit's defense is great, and the Pistons are tough and all that. But somewhere along the line you have to actually score points (a lot of them, actually) to win a playoff basketball game, let alone a series. Cunningham can't do it alone. Certainly not with Duren, Detroit's other All-Star, taking nearly a 10 PPG dive. 

That's why calling Harris a savior isn't an exaggeration. The Pistons would already be on vacation without him. When they were down 3-1 to the Magic, he scored 75 points over the three elimination games, including 30 in Game 7 with five 3-pointers. Only four players have scored more than his 192 total playoff points so far. He is the first player since Charles Barkley in 1993 to record at least 20 points with two or fewer turnovers in seven straight playoff games. Michael Jordan did it in 1991. 

19 points (7-11 FG, 2-4 3PT) in the first half for Tobias Harris 🔥 pic.twitter.com/T8tzGoaVym

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) May 3, 2026

I'll say it again, Harris' name is not supposed to be in this kind of company. However, it's not completely out of left field that he's been able to produce like this. He's a playoff-built scorer. He's big and strong and gets to his spots like a professional. His brand of individual scoring becomes exponentially valuable in the playoffs, where deep and specific scouting and the physicality allowed off-ball creates an environment in which the "plays" or general actions or even the broader sequences you relied on in the regular season no longer yield consistent advantages, at which point somebody just has to go get a bucket on their own. 

Harris was a wildly overpaid player in Philly. His shot selection has been known to drive you mad at times and his box scores might not always look terribly efficient (45/29 shooting splits against Orlando, for instance), but if there's one thing he has always been able to do it's go get the type of tough, often highly contested bucket that is the lifeblood of postseason offense. He's a back-to-the-basket beast. 

And another:

And another:

He can face up and score with physicality rather than space creation. 

Harris is also an effective cutter/flasher, sliding into soft spots for feel finishes. 

He attacks closeouts and, in general, catches passes on the move, often downhill, giving him a step of initial leverage on defenders he might not quite have the speed to beat from a standstill position. And from there, he's converting 72% of his shots in the restricted area so far in the playoffs, per Cleaning the Glass. 

There isn't a type of shot Harris hasn't been able to convert in these playoffs, to be honest. He's done it inside, outside, in the midrange, from the post, facing up, in transition, anywhere and everywhere. He has taken on the burden of bulk scoring, attempting almost 17 shots per game after just 10.6 in the regular season. 

Some might look at his 41% mark on jumpers or 30% from 3 and give it the dreaded "volume" tag, but that's box score nonsense. Every bit of this has been absolutely necessary for the Pistons, who, again, would have been done a long time ago if not for Harris, who has always been one of the league's true good guys. Every person you talk to who has ever had any interaction with Harris will tell you as much. Great teammate. But never a great player... until now. And it couldn't be happening at a better time. 

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