Tobias Harris still hasn’t made his Spurs debut, but San Antonio may have already nudged his role into a different lane than the one that was expected when he signed.
The original thought was pretty straightforward: Harris could step in and maybe start at power forward ahead of Julian Champagnie. Instead, the early setup has Devin Vassell in the starting four spot, and that pushes Harris into a reserve role before he’s even taken the floor. Vassell is playing fewer than 20 minutes per game at that position, but the ripple effect is already clear.
What looked like a simple split between Harris and Champagnie at power forward now feels more crowded. The Spurs suddenly have to sort through Harris, Champagnie, Keldon Johnson and Carter Bryant, and that creates a logjam in the frontcourt that could shrink Harris’ expected workload.
With Vassell starting and both Harris and Champagnie coming off the bench, San Antonio will have to get creative just to keep everyone involved. Champagnie can slide to small forward, but that would cut into minutes for Johnson and Bryant.
Harris doesn’t have the same easy escape hatch. He probably won’t spend much time at the three, and playing him at the five doesn’t sound like a real option either.
That leaves Harris potentially capped around 20 minutes per game, at least as things stand now. Injuries or rotation changes could open things up, but right now the numbers and the lineup structure don’t leave much room.
Even so, the Spurs still need what Harris brings. He gives them size, shooting and a scoring touch that comes with passing ability, and his game is different enough from the other forwards on the roster that he could still carve out a useful niche.
The question is not whether he fits. It’s how much floor time there will actually be for him.
Somebody is going to lose minutes here, and Johnson may be the one who feels it if the Spurs want more Champagnie at the three. That could create a path for Harris at the four, but it would also squeeze Bryant.
It’s a crowded puzzle for Mitch Johnson to solve. But in the NBA, having too many rotation pieces is a better problem than not having enough, and Harris has already shown he can adapt to whatever the Spurs ask of him.
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