Getty Montrezl Harrell, the Philadelphia 76ers' latest free agency acquisition.
With less than three weeks left to go before the Philadelphia 76ers ramp up training camp, the front office didn’t quite feel like the final roster was set.
Hence the team singing free agent center Montrezl Harrell on September 6. The former Sixth Man of the Year will provide quality backup minutes behind superstar Joel Embiid this season.
There’s a lot to unpack with the Harrell signing, including his messy past with Embiid, the likely end of the Charles Bassey/Paul Reed experiment in Philadelphia, and Harden’s role in bringing Harrell to the City of Brotherly Love.
Then there’s the Doc Rivers angle. The Sixers’ head coach is known to rely on veterans in crunch time, even to his own demise. While Harrell is a quality backup and should provide some decent offensive off the bench, his lack of versatility means he’ll likely be hunted on defense in the playoffs.
But hey, that’s a problem for another day. And even still, there’s quite a bit to love about the Harrell addition. Over the past few seasons, the Sixers have relied on a revolving door of backup big men, including Andre Drummond and Dwight Howard. Harrell is battle-tested, still relatively young, and brings a swaggering identity to a Sixers lineup starved of a backbone for stretches of last season.
And former players are also dropping their takes on the Harrell signing, including former NBA champ Matt Barnes. Barnes took to Instagram to congratulate the Sixers and Harrell on the new marriage.
“This is a BIG pick up for the 6ers,” wrote Barnes. “Congrats @Trezz_8.”
NBA champion Matt Barnes chimes in on the Montrezl Harrell addition #Sixers
While the two players never took the court on the same team, Barnes knows a thing or two about Harrell’s game. That’s because the two players are something of NBA “dawgs” — bench unit enforcers who weren’t afraid to instigate a conflict.
How Harrell Impacts the Rest of the Roster
Harrell should come in and immediately be the team’s go-to bench option at center. Unfortunately for some of the players down the roster, Harrell’s signing could be, as Barnes put it, “BIG,” but for all the wrong reasons.
Prior to signing Harrell, the Sixers’ roster was already loaded with the league’s regular season max. Now, with 17 players under contract, the team will likely be looking at waiving, trading, or otherwise moving off of two contracts.
Currently, the Sixers have four players under contracts that are either non-guaranteed or only partially guaranteed: Isaiah Joe, Trevelin Queen, Paul Reed, and Charles Bassey. As it stands, it makes sense for the team to move on from one of Reed or Bassey, two young big men who haven’t quite earned the trust of head coach Doc Rivers.
That could mean an unfortunate end to Reed, who was drafted the same night as Tyrese Maxey. The two are close friends, with Maxey even pegging Reed as a Sixer likely to break out this season.
How Will the Sixers Use Montrezl Harrell This Season?
The Sixers have the benefit of seeing Harrell in action with one of its current stars. Harrell and James Harden played together in Houston for two seasons, before the center was traded to the Clippers in 2017.
And Rich Hofmann of The Athletic broke down how the two players can bring their chemistry and magic to Philadelphia.
“Under Rivers in Los Angeles, Harrell perfected the pick-and-roll with [Lou] Williams. That is where Harden, who figures to play with Harrell on backup units, should come into play with the Sixers. As we saw in the first clip, Harden and Harrell can pick apart traditional drop coverage. But if defenses decide to switch that action, they’re potentially forced to deal with a mismatch on both ends of that switch,” wrote Hofmann.
A pairing of Harden and Harrell, or even Harrell and fellow bench-mate De’Anthony Melton, should go a long way towards shoring up a secondary rotation that finished 27th in points last season.