LA Clippers: Montrezl Harrell 2018-19 season review

Room for improvement

Montrezl Harrell is a below-average passer for his position. Most of his assists came of dribble-handoffs or simple reads moving the ball, but he started to show some ability to hit corner shooters off the short roll.

Harrell demands so much attention close to the basket, it really opens things up for the LA Clippers’ shooters:

Defensively, Harrell is below average.

Not only was his defensive rating in the playoffs the worst of any player on his team, it ranked him dead last in the entire postseason among Clippers who logged at least 100 minutes (a full 2.1 points per-100-possessions worse than teammate Lou Williams).

I’m not quite sure he’s as bad individually as the metrics paint.

Harrell grades out between average to good in the play types that matter for bigs (post-ups, pick-and-roll man). Though small for a player manning the five for most of his minutes, Harrell’s certainly not bereft of physical advantages.

He owns a 7-foot-4 wingspan and explosive athleticism, gifts that could and should impact the game more defensively.

Harrell’s endurance has been questioned in the past, a pretty unfair accusation given how hard he plays when he’s on the floor. Defensive issues, aside Harrell’s main area for improvement remains his touch, particularly from the line.

Harrell has one of the highest free-throw rates in the league (drawing fouls on 46.6 percent of his possessions), but shot just 61.5 percent at the stripe.