The LA Clippers front office didn’t go after Montrezl Harrell.
Montrezl Harrell is no longer a member of the LA Clippers. Instead, he has taken his talents across the hall to join LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers. When this free agency news broke, many fans immediately jumped on Trezz, calling him a snake for joining the enemy.
Maybe, though, he wouldn’t have gone there if the Clippers’ front office had wanted him back.
In an interview, Harrell was asked by reporters if he felt like the Clippers wanted him back.
His response?
"“Apparently not if I’m on the other side.”"
Reporter - “Did you feel like the Clippers wanted you back?”
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) November 23, 2020
Lakers’ Montrezl Harrell, after a long pause trying to find the words - “Apparently not if I’m on the other side.” pic.twitter.com/p9DbTKrajU
There it is. According to Trezz, the Clippers’ front office did not want to bring back the reigning Sixth Man of the Year. I’m not sure whether or not to be surprised. Given that Trezz only got the Mid Level Exception from the Lakers, the Clips could have easily paid him given they had his Bird rights.
Sure, the production in the playoffs was not great but given the team’s cap situation, bringing back Trezz made sense. He would still be useful in the regular season to spell Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and fans would hope that Ty Lue wouldn’t make the same mistakes with him in the postseason that Doc Rivers did.
So if he could be brought back cheap, could play a smaller role, and seemingly wanted to come back, this has to be a chemistry issue, right? The Chris Haynes article from the end of the season paints a picture that Trezz and PG didn’t get along with it coming to a head after the playoff loss.
In the past few days, there were reports that Trezz and Kawhi didn’t get along either. If there is any merit to those reports, it makes sense that the team wanted no part in bringing Trezz back.
Both Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are set to be free agents next summer (assuming they opt out which they will) and the team cannot afford to let either walk for nothing given the haul they had to send out to get them both. If Trezz was causing a rift, he had to go.