Tobias Harris is playing his best basketball of the season when the Detroit Pistons need it most. Through the first 10 games of playoff action, Harris has become a legitimate secondary threat alongside Cade Cunningham, giving Detroit a scorer it badly needed as the postseason has tightened.
Harris has averaged 21.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.8 blocks in the playoffs, while shooting 46.7% from the floor and 32.7% from three-point range on 4.9 attempts a game. That kind of production has mattered because Cunningham has carried much of the offensive load, and Harris has emerged as the player the Pistons needed to step up consistently next to him.
The timing matters because Harris will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and Detroit almost certainly will look to bring him back. He has been an integral part of the Pistons' new-look, top-of-the-conference roster for the past two seasons, and this postseason run is strengthening the case for keeping him in place.
That rise also comes against the backdrop of what Detroit heard before the postseason even began. The Pistons drew criticism for their lack of movement at the trade deadline and for entering the playoffs without another proven offensive option. Harris has answered that criticism with production, giving Detroit exactly the kind of reliable second scorer it was accused of missing.
The tension now is financial as much as basketball-related. A strong postseason can push Harris' value higher in free agency, even as Detroit tries to keep the roster together around Cunningham. If the Pistons want to preserve what has worked over the past two seasons, they may have to pay for the version of Harris that has shown up in this postseason: productive, efficient and hard to ignore.
