Tobias Harris talks Detroit Pistons chemistry at youth basketball camp

Mike Gavin | Special to the Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Watch: Q&A with Pistons forward Tobias Harris Pistons forward Tobias Harris discusses draft pick Luke Kennard, how the team can improve and more at his youth camp in New York on Thursday, June 29, 2017.

DIX HILLS, N.Y. -- Tobias Harris is a smooth player on the court and a smoothie-maker off it.

Surrounded by kids at his basketball camp at Half Hollow Hills West High in suburban New York on Thursday, Harris worked with a blender instead of a basketball as he made smoothies for campers.

“They loved them,” Harris said with a smile. “They didn’t know it had spinach in it.”

The camp offered a reprieve in a pivotal off-season for Harris and the Pistons, who fell short of the playoffs in 2016-17.

Harris, a forward, spoke Thursday at his high school alma mater about the team’s selection of Luke Kennard in the NBA draft, trade rumors involving players on the roster and what the team needs to improve.

“Number one, our chemistry has to get better,” Harris said. “We have to get a little bit more focused.”

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Harris was the Pistons’ leading scorer last season at 16.1 points per game, shooting a career-best 48.1% from the field, all while coming off the bench at times. Hoping to spark the second unit, coach Stan Van Gundy brought Harris off the bench in December.

“Whatever’s best for the team,” Harris said. “If the minutes are there, then that’s all that really matters for me.”

Harris said he would be interested in a more featured role within the offense, which he believes will come naturally as the Pistons develop better chemistry and ball movement.

“And I obviously got to definitely be a little bit more aggressive next year in different courses of the game,” he said. “But those are things that I’m working on and putting in the work now so when the opportunity comes I’ll be ready for it.”

Harris, who turns 25 on July 15, shot 34.7% on a career-high 314 three-point attempts last season for the second-best percentage of his career. As a team, the Pistons ranked 27th in three-pointers made with 7.7 per game and 26th in average attempts with 23.3, equating to 33% shooting from long range, which was 28th in the NBA.

Enter Kennard, who was drafted to help fill the shooting void after connecting on 43.8% of his threes as a sophomore at Duke.

“A two-guard that can shoot the basketball, also has a high IQ for the game, knows how to play, knows how to get guys involved,” Harris said. “I’ve heard good things from him so far already from summer league practices, and then I’ll be in Orlando to kind of catch a game or two.”

Van Gundy has said retaining Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a restricted free agent, is a priority. That leaves the Pistons, projected to be over the $99-million salary cap, with little flexibility as they approach the $119-million luxury-tax threshold. With a bloated payroll and nothing to offer free agents beyond salary-cap exceptions, the Pistons could look to unload players via trade. Despite being traded twice in his six-year career, Harris said he doesn’t allow his trade potential to weigh on him.

“Not really,” said Harris, who has two years and $30.8 million remaining on his contract. “I think this time, really for me, is just to get better and to try to excel in many different areas that I want to get better at. So, that’s really my only focus.”

“I just worry about bettering myself and let the team, the other side of it, handle all that. Whoever is on the team, that’s who we got and that’s who we rolling with.”

Harris, one of 10 finalists for the NBA’s Community Assist Award, was honored last week in Brooklyn with the Commitment to Kids Award. The Tobias Harris School of Business Basketball Camps in its seventh year and includes kids from third to 12th grade. Beyond the fundamentals of basketball, Harris also teaches “things that I’ve learned in my life at a later age that I can kind of show to them now.”

He includes lessons in antibullying, yoga, networking and healthy eating. Yes, Harris likes to mix things up, which is why he was using that blender.

“For them to be able to see different things at a young age, that may help them going forward,” Harris said. “They’ll go home and tell their parents, ‘Hey, we can make this smoothie instead of eating candy.’ ”

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