Free Agent Profile: Montrezl Harrell
Miranda: In 2012, the Knicks traded three players and two second round picks to Houston for the last 24 games of Marcus Camby’s career. In 2015, the Rockets used the second of those picks to draft Montrezl Harrell. Five years later, Harrell is a free agent and New York’s got a fat wad to spend. If the Knicks were a house on the market, they’d be a “fixer-upper.” Everything needs renovating. Where would Harrell fit?
To answer that question literally, he fits anywhere he damn well pleases. At 6-foot-7, 240 pounds, with a remarkable 7-foot-4 wingspan, the 24-year-old Harrell is an energy player whose length, strength and motor play bigger than his size. The Sixth Man of the Year led L.A.’s bigs in minutes, points, blocks, free throws and free throws attempted. Per 36, only Kawhi Leonard and Paul George scored more than Harrell; only Kawhi had more offensive and defensive win shares.
Harrell’s defensive impact stems from his ability to protect the paint in multiple ways. First and most obvious, people with 88-inch wingspans are a good bet to block some shots. Bet on Trezz.
Second, and less glamorous but no less meaningful, Harrell tied for second in the league in charges drawn, behind only Kyle Lowry. From his feet to his fingertips, the man is all impediment. On both ends Harrell knows what he’s good at and sticks with it. He’s like a football team that runs a QB sneak every down for three yards. It’s not Hollywood, but it gets the job done. On offense, 92% of his shots came from 10 feet and in, with two-thirds of those within three feet of the rim. Too many numbers? Open your eyes.
A bargain his first five years, Harrell appeared finally in position to earn a salary close to his value, somewhere in the realm of $80M-$100M for 4-5 years. But hark! NBA owners pretend they’re poor in the best of times, and the world here-and-now is def not those. Verily I give thee un market correction:
L.A. owns his Bird rights, so they can go over the cap to pay him whatever they want. Charlotte could also make a run at the North Carolina native. The Knicks can offer Harrell as much as anyone, if they feel like it. What do you feel about his fit in New York, Stingy?
Schulmaniac: All I know is when I go on my vision quest to embody the Knicks spirit, we’re throwing ‘bows on foes. We got the big weapons and you’re all targets. Blinding chin checks, armed robbery. Forty-eight minutes of you’d better give me what I don’t take. After that we’re gonna get in your elevator and press every last button on your soul. Bet. My brute brooding percentage will get you cut. Basically if you want points you’re bound to catch something pointy.
Give me all the Montrezl. What was the question? Right, does he fit… does it work in New York…
Well hell yea, yes — yes it does! It’s a commitment to put substance in front of system. We’re rolling with the lump squad. Players that don’t play. A reversal of the engineering that has ushered in several generations of Knicks-gentrifier condo screwball teams. We can build any housing we want around like-minded and motivated members of a positively charged ecosystem. The question becomes: does this amount of charge blow a fuse?
It could easily blow the fuse labeled “Mitchell Robinson.” Alternatively, it may pop the Julius Randle breaker, and while I don’t think that hurts my feelings, Randle is a huge part of the power supply. If Mike Conley or Chris Paul has anything to do with it, maybe the Knicks will intentionally short it. Now, if Montrezl is willing to leave an outside-looking-in championship contender, in a major city, for a fledgling team of misfits in a colder major city, I’d assume it comes not only with a significant raise, but a promotion to boot. I love Trez, I need Trez, give Trez. But isn’t he just further compressing space both on the floor and on the cap sheet? I have no reason to believe in Mitch spontaneously growing a jumper simply because he can raise up over his shrimp fest cousins at the local high school.
Miranda: I don’t see Mitch and Montrezl spending a ton of time together on the court, which is one reason to give this idea pause. Robinson will be due a new contract soon, likely around $15 million a year. Would New York pay him and Harrell like $30 million combined when they can’t even play together? That’s not Building A Champion 101. But here’s where it’s important to remember that classic high school yearbook quote: “Wherever you go, there you are.”
The Knicks are not a year away from contention. They’re not two or three or four years away. Building a winner usually takes time, even with top-end talent. Giannis Antetokounmpo just completed his seventh season and has yet to reach the NBA Finals. Nikola Jokić is in his fifth campaign; as good as he is, and with all the other great moves the Nuggets have made since then, they haven’t come close to winning it all. Golden State won its first title in Steph Curry’s sixth season. Cleveland won a bunch of lotteries and still didn’t capture its first championship until Kyrie Irving’s fifth season, and if not for adding LeBron James before that fifth season they’re still title-less. Nobody on the Knicks approaches anyone mentioned in this paragraph. That’s OK. Consider Usain Bolt.
Fast chap. Runs like a deer. Your humble narrator does not. There are a million techniques in training and execution Bolt knows that I never will. But I don’t need to worry about them because I’m not aiming for the level of an Olympian. My fat ass just needs to get off the computer and get some cardio in. A title contender isn’t spending $35 million a year on two bigs who can’t play together. That kind of spending will prevent most teams from diversifying their talents enough to compete late in the playoffs, when great teams force adjustments and target obvious weaknesses. However, similar to arguments in support of the Knicks trading for Chris Paul, there’s value in a lousy team making the Mitch/Montrezl investment.
One, it guarantees a quality, impactful big man is on the floor at all times. That may sound pretty middies compared to, say, the Lakers Kush of having either LeBron James or Anthony Davis on the floor at all times. But if you’ve ever lived in a place that runs dry, like Rochester, New York, middies are manna from heaven after a dry spell. To put it another way: last year, Bobby Portis was fourth on the Knicks in minutes. Bobby Portis does not guarantee a quality, impactful big.
Two, it gives you valuable assets in case the team progresses enough to want to change shape. Say it’s 2022 and Superstar X wants a trade, and the rejuvenated New York Knickerbockers are a respectable outfit. Now you have contracts you can move who don’t break the bank but who offer enough ballast in a big trade to make the numbers work. And once the trade is done, you’ve not only improved in whatever area Superstar X occupies, but you still have a quality, not-old big man in the mix.
We’ve talked about this with a few of the pending free agents — the idea of the Knicks looking beyond Xs and Os to focus more on future roster flexibility. But does that mean our horse is about to crash into its cart? Tom Thibodeau isn’t making millions of dollars because he’s got pipes like Mario Lanza. He’s supposed to make this caged bird of a franchise sing. Robinson and Harrell are saxophones, not tubas. Is there a way in which that duo could make sweet sweet music together?
Schulbonzo: My high school yearbook quote was, “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.” Now, as stated, I’m an enormous Montrezl advocate, he just embodies the presence that I think the Knicks as well as Knicks fans need and lack. However, maybe the greatest purveyor of bigs with heart and tenacity is my own team!
Is it possible that Kenny Wooten offers the same consistent over-the-top wallop from the pivot? I’m not saying Wooten is a better player all around than Trez, but he does offer the lineup a consistency of purpose and presence (from Mitchell in the starting lineup) to the bench brigade. A 99th percentile leaper blocking shots and stuffing them home — no Knick lineup need be without a rim runner and protector. That could help buoy either Dennis Smith Jr. or Frank Ntilikina, depending on how the rotation shakes out. So why are we out here trying to buy a Nemo Underwater Angle Grinder when we can just as easily get a Black and Decker bullshit grinder? You know your boat is up on blocks in your driveway anyhow. Lest we disregard the actual factual that people who own boats suck ass anyway. Just get a fleet of kayaks, you dick. We don’t need you spewing diesel fuel into the ocean, draining sundried Chandons to the gills, hanging brain and hoping to get your nob smoked by a sheepshead fish.
What I’m saying is: can’t they use this money elsewhere?
Miranda: A lot of the free agent bigs we’ve talked about — Aron Baynes; Christian Wood; Harry Giles; Harrell — don’t seem like players who’d succeed sharing the court for any length of time with Mitchell Robinson. I know pointing this out risks igniting a holy war, but where do we draw the line for Mitch as the priority? None of the free agent bigs mentioned above are All-NBA candidates, and none possess the cathedral ceilings Robinson does. But Wood, Giles and Harrell are 25, 22 and 26. They’re young and they all do things. If the Knicks could trade Robinson for a good package and sign a quality young big, should they consider it? Is Harrell that big?
The playoffs suggest no, he isn’t; at least, the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokić do. Harrell’s immolation at the hands of Jokić would make even a bitch-ass white boy drop his tail in shame between his legs. Michael Corvo with the postmortem:
“L.A. posted a team-worst minus-11.6 net rating with [Harrell] on the floor in the playoffs, including a mind-blowing minus-30.1 net rating while sharing the floor with [Kawhi] Leonard and [Paul] George... In comparison, the Clippers had a plus-17.7 net rating with [Ivica] Zubac on the floor in the playoffs and a plus-11.1 net rating with Zubac alongside Leonard and George… [tops] among the team’s rotation players...”
But the Knicks don’t need to worry about the Nuggets or the Clippers, both of whom play out west. Again, the Knicks don’t even need to worry about making the playoffs, much less packing noisemakers. They’re simply trying to graduate from baby steps to steady as she goes. Harrell could help them in the short term and get himself well in the process. With his per-year value estimated to have dropped in half thanks to COVID slicing revenues and Jokić slicing Montrezl up, word is he could be looking for a one-year deal for good-but-not-stupid money to re-establish his value. Miami has been mentioned as a possible suitor. Would it make sense for the slow-but-steady Knicks to make Harrell next year’s Portis? It’s complicated, but worth exploring.
