LA Clippers: Montrezl Harrell 2018-19 season review

Strengths

Montrezl Harrell is a paint-based player, but while he was just average posting up (47th percentile per NBA stats and info), he was one of the league’s premier roll-men in 2018-19.

Harrell ranked in the 87th percentile in efficiency in the pick-and-roll, ripping through contact to dunk over just about every big in the league. Harrell is something of an anomaly among high dunk-rate bigs in the NBA.

Though he registered 203 dunks on the season, just eight of those were alley-oops. A majority of the time, Harrell is just quicker to the rim than his defender. Those odd times he’s not, he’s strong enough to finish through contact:

Though he’s primarily a play finisher going downhill, Harrell is not without some moves. He has a dependable hook shot (50.4 percent this season, down from 57.3 percent the year before), and is better driving on bigger defenders than he’s credited.

Watch him pivot into a beautiful little spin move on Joel Embiid:

While Harrell’s rebounding numbers aren’t wildly impressive (8.9 per-36 minutes), he’s one of the league’s best box-out guys.

Harrell finished eighth in the league in defensive boxouts with 6.4 per-game and though it’s not reflected in a positive way in terms of the team’s rebounding percentage when he’s on the court, he’s still a physical presence teams have to deal with under the basket.

The playoffs were a mixed bag.

Though the LA Clippers were outscored thoroughly in Harrell’s minutes (minus 31.0 net rating, including a team-worst 128.3 defensive rating), it didn’t stop the Louisville product from roasting the Dub’s interior defense like a comedian would a drunk heckler in a comedy club.

Harrell shot a blistering 73 percent from the field in his first extended playoff run, including 80 percent on shots inside five feet:

The Lou Williams-to-Harrell connection is pure synergistic beauty.