Harris admits 76ers 'haven't had the best chemistry'
Tobias Harris understands things haven't gone according to plan for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Despite entering 2019-20 with championship aspirations, the 76ers sit sixth in the Eastern Conference - 14 games back of the first-place Milwaukee Bucks - as the NBA works toward restarting the campaign in Orlando next month.
Harris concedes the players' inability to get on the same page has affected the team's performances.
"I'll just say, and I keep it real, we haven't had the best chemistry throughout the whole year. It took us a while to kind of get everyone together," he said on "ESPN's First Take" on Friday. "We battled injuries from the start to the end and right now, if we're the sleeper, we're the sleeper."
This isn't the first time that a 76ers player has called the team's cohesion into question.
Center Al Horford revealed in February that there was "some stuff going on" in the Sixers' locker room, though he said they agreed to keep any conflict away from the public eye.
Three months prior to Horford's comments, Jimmy Butler suggested a behind-the-scenes conflict contributed to his decision to leave for the Miami Heat last summer.
Philadelphia will play its first game of the restart Aug. 1 against the Indiana Pacers. The 76ers possess one of the easiest remaining schedules on paper, with the Pacers, Toronto Raptors, and Houston Rockets their only opponents currently with a winning record.
Harris believes the 76ers can change outside perception with a strong run in Orlando.
"How we're viewed, that's someone else's opinion, and I know when I look my guys in the eye and we have conversations, we got one goal in mind; that's to go out there and play and win a championship," Harris said. "So that's the only view that matters to me.
"What people got to say about our team, I get it because we haven't met our expectations so far this year. But we have a new opportunity in Orlando to go out and just play ball and really scratch a new surface of what we can accomplish."