NBA Sixth Man Ladder: Familiar faces lead 1st look at top bench honor
By Phil Watson
Montrezl Harrell has continued to steadily improve since being taken in the second round by the Houston Rockets in the 2015 NBA Draft. Acquired as part of the package that sent Chris Paul to Houston in 2017, Harrell is once again putting up career-high numbers — something he has done each of his five NBA seasons.
He’s made two starts this season for the LA Clippers after placing third in the NBA Sixth Man of the Year voting last season, averaging 18.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 blocks in 29.9 minutes per game on 58.9 percent shooting. Harrell is not a floor stretcher — he’s just 0-for-6 on the season thus far — but as an undersized 5, he plays big.
Just 6-foot-7 but a bulky 240 pounds, Harrell had played exclusively at the center spot and despite the height he gives up, the Clippers are 2.5 points per 100 possessions better when he’s on the floor. Offensively, he primarily eats inside of 10 feet, where 89 percent of his attempts are generated.
He’s hitting 71.1 percent in the restricted area, where 63.1 percent of his looks come, and 48.5 percent from three to 10 feet, an area from which Harrell takes a little more than a quarter of his shots (25.9 percent).
Among qualified reserves, Harrell is second behind teammate Lou Williams in scoring at 17.7 points per game over 18 appearances off the bench and trails only DeAndre Jordan of the Brooklyn Nets in rebounding at 7.3 per game.
If he continues to produce at a high rate for a bench unit that is once again No. 1 in the NBA in scoring at 52.4 points per game — LA led the league last season at 53.2 points a game, the highest in NBA history — Harrell might be the first seventh man to be named NBA Sixth Man of the Year.