While the 2018-19 season has been a strong one for LA Clippers fourth year big man Montrezl Harrell, the months of January and February have seen him take it to a whole new level.
Throughout this season, Montrezl Harrell has been putting up numbers and helping to carry this LA Clippers squad. The fourth year big man averaging 16.3ppg/6.5rpg/1.9apg in only 26.3 minutes per game. And he’s converting 62.8% of his shot attempts on top of that. Per 36 minutes, that gets bumped up to 22.3ppg/8.9rpg/2.5apg. Depending on which conference you play in, those are All-Star numbers.
To put it plainly, Montrezl Harrell has been a beast– despite a noticeable dip in performance that the entire team suffered in the month of December. With that said, in the months of January and February, Trezz has really begun to take it up a notch, both in the numbers and sheer amount of nastiness he brings on the floor. Harrell went from splits of 15.1ppg/6.5rpg/1.5apg before the new year to 17.6ppg/6.3rpg/2.4apg after. Since coming back from the All-Star break, Montrezl has matched his career high of 30 points against Memphis as he put up 30pts/3reb/1ast and then surpassed it, putting up 32pts/5reb/5ast against Dallas. The man has been an absolute wrecking ball.
Now, what the Clippers and their fans would really like is for Harrell to not only maintain this strong play, but build on it as they make a push for the playoffs. With the Clippers in 7th place, a game ahead of San Antonio, a blossoming Trezz is exactly what will get them there. And there’s really nothing to suggest that it isn’t exactly what we’ll continue to see. In the 2017-18 season, Montrezl also turned up at the end of the season, surging towards the playoffs (which the Clippers would miss, thanks to a litany of injuries). He increased his averages in that season from January on by 7ppg/1.9rpg/0.6apg. Then, if you tack the current season onto the end of that one, you’ll see a fairly steady rise in performance on a per-month basis across the board. All coming off of the bench, aside from a few odd games here and there.
While the numbers are nice to look at, a lot of the time they can ring hollow, to a degree. But with Trezz you can see the improvement when he plays. The guy has always hustled hard and been a worker on both ends of the court, but he’s now put himself into a position where he’s being given the opportunities. Not only putting his four years of experience in the NBA to use, but flourishing. He’s making his chances count and looks the part of a dominant player at times, especially when he’s paired with someone like Lou Williams, with whom his chemistry is off the charts. Here’s a little snippet of Montrezl putting that basketball IQ on display:
Lou to Trez, the best bench scoring duo in league history.
— Justin W. (@LAClippersFilm) February 26, 2019
The patience that Trez has showed in these situations has been incredible. 6MOTY if it wasn't for his teammate. pic.twitter.com/1D1zETZCKY
His improved ability to make good reads and quick decisions out of the pick-and-roll is a big part of Harrell’s overall improvement. Using timely ball-fakes and passing to open shooters have made him all the more dangerous. Trezz has even alluded to adding a bit of spacing to his game in the future. That would be like taking a shark and strapping a laser beam to its head (shoutout Dr. Evil). With a desire to constantly play hard and improve himself, the sky’s the limit.
So yes, Montrezl Harrell has been hot in January and February of 2019. But really he’s been heating up ever since coming into the league, and we’re finally starting to see him burn bright.