Los Angeles Lakers: Grading the 2020-21 offseason acquisitions
2. Montrezl Harrell
Price: 2 years, $18.9mil fully guaranteed, becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2022-23.
My first reaction upon hearing the news of Montrezl Harrell signing with the Lakers was “WHAT?”
This was partly induced by the fact that he was one of the vocal leaders of last season’s big rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers. However, there were two primary reasons I wasn’t pleased upon hearing the news of the signing.
- At the time, Christian Wood was rumored to have agreed to a contract worth $9mil per year with the Houston Rockets. I strongly prefer Wood to Trez as a player, so I was baffled upon the announcement of the latter signing for more. However, it since came out that Wood’s contract was actually worth $14mil, which made the Trez move sit a lot better with me from a purely financial standpoint.
- The memory of Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets abusing him on the defensive end of the floor in the Western Conference Semi-Finals was still fresh in my mind.
The question on every Lakers’ fans mind is “which version of Trez are we going to get?”
He was a monster in the regular season, winning 6MOTY on averages of 18.6 PPG / 7.1 RPG and 1.1 BPG. His advanced numbers also graded favorably on finishing (99.8th percentile), roll gravity (97.8th percentile), post play (98.8th percentile), one on one (98.2nd percentile), and interior defense (86.6th percentile).
However, after joining the bubble late, his numbers dropped dramatically across the board as did his play, leading to Doc Rivers opting to bench him for extended stretches of key games.
Moving forward, I’m concerned about his fit with the team. If the previous season’s playoff were anything to go by, he’s too small to guard big and strong opposing centers, yet can’t fully exploit them at the other end due to his lack of outside shot.
However, one thing to note is that Trez had personal issues to deal with before entering the bubble, and those could’ve been a large reason for his poor play.
I like the way he’s hustled throughout his career, I love the energy he brings to both ends of the court, and I think the Lakers paid a reasonable price for him. I’m just not convinced he’s a great fit on the court.
Grade: C+
The third Lakers signing of the offseason is a player who after being oft-maligned for much of his tenure with the team, rapidly ascended to hero status amongst the fanbase after his postseason heroics.