NBA Powerless Rankings: Pistons making business decisions like a business does

2. Tobias Harris

I am sad. Today, I feel sadness. I’m mostly confused and also somewhat hungry, but there is a thin layer of grief over everything else.

Tobias Harris was extremely easy to root for. There were no personality foibles that could be blown out of a proportion if a quote were taken out of context. He just devoted time to charity and did nice things. It’d be hard to hear an unkind word about him, unless you live with Scott Skiles.

And his game was entertaining. He’d zoom around and then go “whoa” and then fake a dude out and then “yeah” and the ball would go in the hoop. It was like this:

And he was improving! Though his 3-point shot has tapered off a bit since his incredible start to the year, he’s still at his highest percentage of his career, pushing a Pistons team that was fifth in the league in 3-point percentage.

Also he liked Pokemon GO, which is the most important thing a person can like, outside of general human decency and the song “Aesthetics” by The Outline.

Basically, if I was to construct an ideal basketball player person, it’d be Tobias. He even wears a headband, which I like. His addition to the starting lineup with Jackson, Drummond, Morris, and KCP after the trade in 2016 was the closest I felt to the Goin’ to Work Pistons since the Goin’ to Work Pistons. He was the final piece.

And he’s gone now. He’s been made to leave and go to play in a different city for a different team.

I am sad.