Montrezl Harrell - RELENTLESS 18/19

Montrezl Harrell rampages on second units. He (literally) runs rampant on most NBA big men, but he “feasts on backups” says Zach Lowe in an article about the great bench combo that Trez and Lou Williams have become. Trez tenaciously tackles the task of taking on the tallest and most titanic of NBA players (stature-wise) and repeatedly comes out on top because he just outworks you. He'll go up and over, around, or through you if he has to. Basically this dude is all-energy, all-the-time.

It’s easy to want to give the Sixth Man award to a bucket getter, likely a guy who is on a lower end playoff team, and the guy who is starting in the same spot as him is just not quite as good but steadies the starting five…but being a Sixth Man is SO much more than that. It’s any wonder that Andre Igudoala (who was good enough to win a Finals MVP in that role), James Johnson, Marcus Smart, and guys of that sort haven’t won it yet. The last guy that even comes to mind that isn’t in the “primary bucket getter” mold would be Lamar Odom, but L.O. was a different kind of problem, especially considering he was essentially the point man for those Lakers long ago. Now, I don’t want to make it sound like Lou Williams shouldn’t get the award; on the contrary, I would genuinely love nothing more than for Trez and Lou, the dynamic duo that really keeps the Clippers clicking to share Sixth Man of the Year honors. I recognize that the odds of that happening are very slim (it would require a level of organization and planning that would be STAGGERING, just like I would LOVE co-MVPs in Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden, and co-ROYs Trae Young and Luka Doncic), but I wanted to give the former Cardinal a little something to show for his efforts this season.

At 2:30 might be one of my favorite sequences. Trez has to switch because Lou gets hung up on the Koufos pin down, closes out hard to Bogdanovic, a good shooter, and forces him to put it on the floor. As you’ll hear the announcer talk about, he goes up EARLY ready for Bogdanovic to put a shot he knows he can get to.

Quick aside because I probably won’t get this chance again: shoutout to Trez and his 2013 Louisville squad that won the later vacated NCAA title. Special shoutout to my guy Luke Hancock (the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four that year). I played with and against Luke a bunch in open runs back when he went to George Mason University (before Jim Larranaga moved to the U (of Miami), which in turn had Luke transfer over to Rick Pitino’s program)) and I was never more into a Final Four than I was that year because Luke and I were routinely among the last ones in that SkyLine gym as they were closing it for the night still shooting around.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26...

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