The San Antonio Spurs just signed Tobias Harris to a two-year, $31 million contract. That is not a typo. San Antonio, the team built around Victor Wembanyama, is spending real money on a 33-year-old veteran wing. Let us talk about why this actually makes sense.
Harris is not the star he was in Philadelphia. He was overpaid there for years. His $180 million contract with the 76ers was one of the worst deals in recent NBA history. But that Harris does not exist anymore. What the Spurs are getting is a veteran role player who can shoot, defend, and mentor.
Wembanyama needs shooters around him. When you have a seven-foot-four unicorn who can score anywhere on the court, you build the roster with spacing. Harris is a career 37 percent three-point shooter. That fits.
The other thing Harris brings is playoff experience. San Antonio has a young roster. Wembanyama is 22. Devin Vassell is 25. Jeremy Sochan is 23. Stephon Castle is 21. That is a lot of youth. Harris has been to the playoffs a dozen times. That leadership matters when the games speed up in April.
The contract is smart too. Two years, $31 million with a team option in year two. San Antonio has all the flexibility. If Harris does not fit, they cut ties after one year. If he does, they have him at a bargain rate.
Some critics will say San Antonio should have used that money on a younger player. Fair point. But the free agent market this year was thin at the wing position. The Spurs looked at what was available and made a reasonable call.
The alternative was overpaying for a lesser player or standing pat. Neither of those helps Wembanyama’s development. Getting a veteran in the room who can teach the young guys how to be professionals is worth $15 million a year.
Harris has quietly been effective the last two years. In Detroit last season, he averaged 12 points, four rebounds, and shot a career-high 40 percent from three. He is not a star, but he does not need to be. He needs to be a plug-and-play veteran who does not need shots.
The San Antonio system will suit him. Coach Mitch Johnson runs an offense that gets everyone involved. Harris will get open looks. He will run the floor. He will be asked to defend multiple positions. That is exactly what he does well at this point in his career.
The playoff push matters for San Antonio. Wembanyama is on his rookie deal for two more years. The Spurs need to be a playoff team by year three of Wemby’s career. That is when the contract clock starts ticking. Adding veterans like Harris accelerates the timeline.
The competition in the West is brutal. The Thunder are the reigning champions. The Nuggets are still dangerous with Jokic. The Timberwolves have a full roster. The Grizzlies and Kings are pushing. San Antonio needs every edge it can get.
Harris is a marginal upgrade, not a game-changer. But marginal upgrades add up. The Spurs also drafted well and made a couple of other lower-profile moves this summer. When you add it all up, San Antonio is a play-in team, maybe even a fringe playoff team.
Wembanyama’s supporting cast is finally starting to look legitimate. Vassell as a scorer, Castle as a playmaker, Chris Paul as the veteran floor general, and now Harris as the connective wing. That is a real basketball roster.
The Tim Duncan comparison keeps getting made with Wembanyama. Fair enough. But Duncan had David Robinson and Sean Elliott around him in the early years. Wembanyama has needed his own version of that veteran presence. Harris helps fill that role.
The Spurs are not winning a title this year. Nobody expected that. But they are building the right way. Signing Harris at this price, on this deal, is a low-risk, high-value move. San Antonio’s front office keeps making smart decisions. Expect more of them before the season starts.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
