Tobias Harris joining Spurs on 2-year, $31 million deal: Source

NBA Offseason

Tobias Harris joining Spurs on 2-year, $31 million deal: Source

Veteran forward Tobias Harris has had two separate stints in Detroit. Don Juan Moore / Getty Images

Tobias Harris’ second stint in Detroit is coming to an end, as the veteran forward has agreed to a two-year, $31 million contract with the San Antonio Spurs, according to a league source granted anonymity because the deal is not yet official.

Trajan Langdon, Detroit’s president of basketball operations, said in May that the Pistons had hoped to retain Harris, who turns 34 on July 15. But that won’t be the case, as he’ll now team up with Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle on a Spurs team that made the NBA Finals last season.

ESPN first reported the deal. Harris spent two years in Detroit (2016-18) before rejoining the Pistons as a free agent in 2024. This past season, Harris paced All-Star guard Cade Cunningham as the Pistons’ second-leading scorer during the postseason with 18.1 points per game. Harris also added 7.2 rebounds and a playoff-career-high 1.5 steals per game as the Pistons, the top seed in the Eastern Conference, won a playoff series for the first time since 2008.

Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff has described Harris as his “safety blanket,” and Harris has been revered as a professional who brings leadership to the locker room. For example, multiple Pistons have praised how Harris has helped younger guys on the team fine-tune their daily routines and approach recovery as a veteran should.

“That’s really my guy,” backup point guard Daniss Jenkins said of Harris after a Pistons playoff win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “(It’s) all the little things. Just talking to me because it’s not easy playing behind the main guy when you’re in that position. So it’s just all the little things to keep my mental right. To stay with it and stay poised through all the ups and the downs.”

Harris said those bonds with his teammates bring him “a lot of life.”

“I tell my wife all the time, all the time, ‘I love being a part of this team, I love being with these guys,’” Harris said in May. “On the floor, off the floor, the communication, the way we all are friends, really. I’m the older guy, but I look at our team like life-long friends outside of hooping — that’s rare. I’ve played with a lot of guys. I’ve probably only called a few of them real friends.”

Now Harris will look to form new bonds in San Antonio. The Spurs needed a power forward who could provide good size at the position, but remain versatile: Harris fits the bill, someone who can play from the wings but also can work out of the dunker spot or post when needed. He is solid at just about everything on the court and has the size to consistently finish in the paint. The Spurs relied on Keldon Johnson when they needed physicality at the four last season, but he struggled to finish once the Spurs got deeper into the playoffs. Harris has a good driving game with decent floater touch and some creativity around the basket. He won’t need to score as much as he did in Detroit — he took 15 shots a game during the Pistons’ recent playoff run.

Harris brings the offensive polish the Spurs were missing in the frontcourt and has enough size to make a difference against teams who can win the battle in the trenches like the Oklahoma City Thunder and New York Knicks. Beyond just winning the positional battle under the rim, the Spurs really needed someone besides the guards who could get all the way to the rim and finish with composure. He should be able to operate in more space, considering the Spurs’ playmaking depth and the way Victor Wembanyama tilts the floor (Though, as of now, he is likely to come off the bench).

The Spurs re-signed Julian Champagnie to a reworked three-year deal and still have Devin Vassell locked in long-term, so there’s no need to change the starting lineup. Though Harris is a more versatile player than Champagnie, he is not a knockdown shooter of the same caliber and that is the primary skill needed around Wembanyama. Barring a trade, the Spurs will have a lot of minutes to split up in the frontcourt as Johnson enters the final year of his contract and Carter Bryant will look to take another step forward in his second season. Johnson provides the intensity, quality defense and shooting the Spurs need off the bench. Bryant is a tantalizing young defender whose shot came along last season, though he needs a lot more experience and will be in Vegas on the Spurs’ summer league team.

The Spurs remain under the luxury tax after signing Harris, so there is no financial impetus to make a consolidation trade at this point. Harris’ two-year deal will expire just as Stephon Castle would be starting a potential max extension, with Dylan Harper on track for one of his own the year after. Harris turns 34 in two weeks, so the Spurs will look to get his best years left before he approaches retirement.

Harris’ departure marks another exit for a key contributor to a Pistons team that won 60 games for the first time in 20 years. On Day 2 of the NBA Draft, the Pistons agreed to trade big man Isaiah Stewart to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for three second-round picks. And as free agency rolls along, the future of All-NBA center Jalen Duren continues to be unclear.

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