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The LA Clippers officially acquired forward Tobias Harris, guard Avery Bradley, and center Boban Marjanovic from the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Blake Griffin, Willie Reed, and Brice Johnson late Monday night. Now members of the Clippers, both Harris and Bradley are expected to have a significant role on a team that is expected to compete for playoff spot in April.
While Bradley and Marjanović are great pieces for the Clippers to keep or even move if they deem it necessary to, Harris is a big part of what the team wants to do moving forward thanks to his talent and versatility. In his first interview as a member of the Clippers, Harris expressed excitement about what he's able to bring to his new team.
“For me, it was a bit unexpected just because of the timing of it,” But it's just part of the game. I'm happy to be here and I'm ready to embrace the challenge, get out here and play, do what I do, and help this team win.”
“[I'm ready to] just come in and play my game. I'm a forward who can play both positions, 3 and the 4, stretch the floor, shoot the 3 ball. I'll try to do whatever I can to win. I'm a winner and I want to go out and do the best I can to help this team win.”
Traditionally, the small forward would handle the ball a lot more than a power forward, but in today's NBA, a guy of Harris' caliber has been able to play both the three and the four, similar to his new teammate Danilo Gallinari. So where exactly does Harris feels most comfortable?
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“The three and four position now are pretty much the same thing so a lot of times, it's predicated on the matchups that you're playing against so for me, it's either position. Offensively, I think I can get my spots and create plays. Defensively, you're playing against different types of guys, different matchups but either or, I like to play.”
Harris is in the midst of a career year in terms of points, three-pointers made per game, and three-point percentage. Overall, Harris is averaging 18.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.7 steals, and 2.4 three-pointers in 32.6 minutes per game.
Harris' value shot up this season, and with the need to trade Avery Bradley's expiring deal after the experiment didn't work out, the Pistons opted to deal both in exchange for the five-time All-Star in Griffin. Every player involved in the deal appears to have heard in a different way, and Harris shared the story of how he found out he was heading to Los Angeles.
“Well actually, I was FaceTiming with my mom and we were talking abut my little brother and sister because they both play in college. She was walking about how they weren't playing that much. She said, ‘well whats up with you guys, the Pistons?' and I said, ‘I dont know, but I think a trade is about to happen or something.' I just said it because I saw a rumor or something. My mom has been through two trades with me already and she was like, ‘well if you need me, I'll come and pack.'
“So she starts telling me a story and I was getting a call so I said, ‘hold on, I'm about to get traded,' and she said goes, ‘nah, I gotta tell you this story.' I said, ‘mom I've got to take this call.' So I took the call and then called her back and I was like yeah I just got traded. and she said, ‘alright boy, well let's go.' That's how my mom is. She said let's go, we're going to LA, let's do it.' She gonna go to my place in Detroit and pack it all up.”
Harris has a great opportunity to make a bigger name for himself in a bigger market in Los Angeles as the first or second scoring option. He'll get his first crack at it in a Clippers uniform on Saturday afternoon against the Chicago Bulls.
