Montrezl Harrell
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Player Facts

Height: 6'7"
Weight: 240lbs.

Wingspan: 7'4.25"

Date of Birth: Jan. 25, 1994
College Experience: Louisville (3 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 7
Physical Strength: 8
Positional Size: 4
Positional Wingspan: 10
Paint Scoring: 9
Midrange Scoring: 4
Three-Point Scoring: 1
Dribbling: 7
Passing: 5
Perimeter Defense: 4
Interior Defense: 7
Rebounding: 9

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Key Killer

> Rampant Rolling

> Low Post Play

> Knack for Drawing Fouls

> Second Chance Baskets

> Competing on Defense

> Rim Protection Chops

> Defensive Rebounding

> A Step Behind/Defensive Struggles

> Notable Offensive Holes

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of NF Highlights & Smart Highlights (YouTube),

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Watching Montrezl Harrell, it's easy to forget that he's vastly undersized at the five. The 6'7" Trez has insane length though, sporting a 7'4.25" wingspan. His constantly revving motor, rebounding and ability to finish everything are his calling cards on the court.

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Key Killer

As long as he gets his minutes, there's a high probability that Trez will finish among the league leaders in restricted area points.

He finished nearly three-quarters of his shots at the tin in 2021-2022 and posted a mark north of 73% the season prior. The volume was also notable, for both seasons, combining for 579 makes in this zone across the pair of years.

His violent two-hand jams are a trademark of his. Harrell uses his body to knock anyone else out of his way before finishing forcefully. He's a superb option to place in the dunker spot with the skill for catching lobs. The energetic big runs rim to rim for easy ones in the open court as well.

Rampant Rolling

Trez hustles up to set super high ball screens for his guard. He and Lou Williams had great chemistry during their time together in LA. After making contact, Montrezl can fly towards the rim with a long runway available. Alternatively, he'll slip, getting out quickly and leveraging that speed on the dive.

With that head of steam, Harrell is great at catching in the pocket and skying for a flush. With the ferocity to try and tear the rim down, he gets a bunch of and-ones and free throws this way. His roll gravity alone opens up multiple strong options for the ball-handler besides finding him on the roll.

Montrezl was above the 75th percentile at both his pit stops scoring as the roll man in 2021-2022 (Washington and Charlotte). Back in his 2019-2020 Sixth Man year, he was in the 81st. He's also a quality passer on short rolls and tends to make the correct read in these spots.

Harrell connected on many push shots as the roller over the years. This is his main counter for when defenders converge in the paint to halt his dive. His length and quick jumping ability help meld for a strong release point on these.

Low Post Play

He steadily improved his post game, deepening his bag of moves. With really nice footwork here, Montrezl likes to use exaggerated up-fakes to get his defender to bite. He also rips through and take it strong to the basket, using his solid burst at the five.

In 2021-2022 as a Wizard Trez gave you 2.3 points per game in the post on 50% shooting here. This slotted him into the game's 73rd percentile.

He draws some of his many fouls in these spots. Additionally, Trez loves to create his own shot on iso's, hesitating and blowing by slow big man defenders.

Knack for Drawing Fouls

He brings tremendous value by getting to the line so often relative to his minutes played. If you bring his minutes up for the sake of comparison, he's in elite company. He was ahead of Russell Westbrook and LeBron James and just shy of Kawhi Leonard and Devin Booker with his 7.2 attempts per-36 in 2019-2020. 2021-2022 had him at 6.5/36.

Second Chance Baskets

With great timing in those long arms, Harrell kills it on the offensive glass. He can rip down the rebound against multiple bodies. As good offensive rebounders are known to do, he begins his fight for good positioning as the shot goes up.

He has soft hands for tip-ins around the basket. Between these and second-efforts for dunks, he had 167 putback points in 2021-2022 (inside top ten). His 2.1 contested offensive rebounds per contest that year bested Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nic Claxton, and Nikola Vucevic.

He is incredibly focused on securing the O-REB whenever a mate's shot goes up or even his own. The undersized big man has some of the most admirable persistence and relentlessness in the entire league. His upper percentile wingspan plays a giant role here too.

Competing on Defense

While mostly locked into being a drop-type big, Montrezl can manage a pick-and-roll serviceably. He's far more mobile than drop bigs such as Brook Lopez and Jonas Valanciunas for instance. Harrell leverages this spryness by bothering pull-up shooters as he springs forth to put a hand up.

Trez's giant 7'4.25" reach is a big factor as he contests the ball handlers here. He can even inch up closer to the level of the screen against hot shooters. He just isn't great on switches, which in fairness is asking a lot of your backup center.

His feet are solid when defending these actions as well. With Harrell, the defensive compete level will almost always be high, with defensive decision-making and some physical limitations being his vices.

Rim Protection Chops

The Louisville product will offer up some rim protection in partly unique ways. For one, his plus-plus wingspan at his height allows for some stunning swats that you wouldn't expect him to get to. He was at or above 1.4 blocks per-36 from 2016-2017 to 2019-2020.

He steps in to take it on the numbers against opponents of all shapes and sizes. Trez drew 30 charges in 2019-2020. This knotted him with Derrick White for second place behind only Kyle Lowry.

Defensive Rebounding

Last but not least is Harrell's defensive glass cleaning. He is one of the most determined and physical rebounders in the Association.

From the 2017-2018 season to his 2019-2020 one, he is always pulled down over a quarter of his team's rebounds when on the floor. Moreover, Montrezl's 5.8 2019-2020 box-outs per night tied him with Serge Ibaka, Bam Adebayo, and Jusuf Nurkic for second place in the league.

WEAKNESSES

A Step Behind/Defensive Struggles

In the post, he can struggle against legit size on the defensive end. They'll pop face-up jumpers right over him. Also, his incredible length can only do so much against power bigs such as true seven-footers. To compound the size issues, Harrell's fundamentals such as post-defense footwork are less than stellar.

Trez is not the most intuitive off-ball defender. Typically the five-man on the floor, Harrell can over-help or conversely be too late on contests. As the center, these lapses and miscues really compromise the integrity of the defense.

Lateness on rotations and attempts to compensate for being a 6'7" center serve to rack up Montrezl's foul totals. He's toned it down a touch since his earlier days but still fouled 4.3 times per 36 minutes in 2018-2019 and 3.0 per 36 in 2019-2020. In that 2018-2019 season, he finished fourth in the league with 255 hacks despite playing less than 27 minutes a night and starting only five games.

Notable Offensive Holes

Barring drastic improvements, it is likely that he remains a non-shooting big. His free throw percentages don't do anything to dispute this likelihood, comfortably sub-70% at the stripe. He doesn't take three-pointers and, outside of the odd face-up jumper, isn't a robust two-point jump shooter either.

He's made some strides as a passer and is more talented than a lot of bigs in this area. However, he should sharpen his playmaking out of the post. Harrell should recognize double teams forming earlier and locate the open man with greater frequency and accuracy.

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Beacon Bacon

Montrezl beat out Dennis Schroder, and his Clipper teammate Lou Williams, to take home the NBA's 2019-2020 Sixth Man of the Year award