No. 4: Montrezl Harrell
2018-2019 statistics: 16.6 PTS, 6.5 REB, 2.0 AST
Montrezl Harrell keeps on finding new ways to impress us, and we can’t say that’s a bad thing.
He was solid enough in 2017-2018, his debut season with the LA Clippers, averaging 11.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 17.0 minutes per game. He was especially good during the second half of that season, playing a crucial role in the team’s playoff pursuit before they ultimately fell short with a handful of games left on the schedule.
In 2018-2019, he took an enormous step forward — not only was he scoring more, but Harrell was more active all over the floor. When the season came to a close, Harrell had posted new career-high marks in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. He was efficient, too, doing all of that in roughly 26 minutes per game.
Harrell also showed off some new skills in 2018-2019 that have us feeling excited for the upcoming season.
There were times when he looked like a legitimate point forward, going coast-to-coast and scoring at the rim, kissing the ball off the glass and into the net. His touch, more than anything, has vastly improved.
Harrell also looks to be working a three-point shot into his game, something that could make him one of the more versatile bigs in the game. He took 17 attempts from range last season, most of which came late in the shot or game clock, but he looked comfortable doing it. Assuming he can knock down around one a game in the near future, it would greatly improve his offensive game.
Harrell showed off a lot of his skills in one of the Clippers’ final regular season games in 2019, scoring several different ways and connecting on a three-ball. If you’re looking for a video that shows a off a lot of what he’s capable of, this one is a good place to begin:
Alongside Lou Wiliams, Harrell has started to become one of the league’s best reserves. And if he didn’t prefer to come off the bench or have a height disadvantage against most bigs, he would’ve been playing with LA’s starters ages ago.