Montrezl Harrell has not been seeing much time with the Philadelphia 76ers lately. Ever since he played 16 minutes against the San Antonio Spurs on February 3, Harrell has not cracked double-digit minutes and has played in only five games. The Sixers have since turned to Paul Reed and P.J. Tucker since then as Joel Embiid‘s backup.
Even so, Harrell didn’t sound too mad about it while talking with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson of Bally Sports when talking about how he’s adjusted to playing with the Sixers.
“It’s just like any place that you would go to with a new system,” Harrell said. “It’s a learning process, but you come in and do your job and continue to get better with all the tools that you have around you. We have a great team, and we have a lot of different guys that can be inserted in the lineup at any given time. So it’s really about staying ready and staying prepared, really.”
With Embiid questionable for the Sixers’ next game against the Golden State Warriors, as reported by Anthony Slater of The Athletic, Harrell may get another opportunity to win his spot back should Embiid be out for the game.
Montrezl Harrell Compares Sixers To Clippers
When Harrell signed with the Sixers, he was familiar with a fair amount of the team’s personnel. He played with James Harden on the Houston Rockets from 2015 to 2017. Then, Harrell played for Doc Rivers with the Los Angeles Clippers from 2017 to 2020.
While talking with Robinson, Harrell talked about how his relationship with Rivers influenced him to sign with the Sixers, though he admitted the two team situations were different.
“I mean, it definitely played a factor towards when it came down to it, with a familiar system and being with someone that you have some familiarity with,” Harrell said. “But this IS NOTHING ON HOW IT WAS WITH THE CLIPPERS! This is a whole different dynamic. We got different players, and guys have different roles.”
Harrell went into more detail regarding how Rivers’ impacted his decision as well as what makes it different in his second go-round with Rivers as his head coach.
“To a certain extent, it had a little bit of a factor, but not really because, like I said, you’re coming to a team or organization that already has an identity and already has its key players. So now it’s all about just coming in and seeing if you can do whatever it takes to complement the guys that are already here.”
Montrezl Harrell on Playing in Sixers’ Offense
Harrell told Robinson what it’s like to play with some of the Sixers’ offensive focal points, most namely Harden and Tyrese Maxey.
“There’s a lot of lineups that you can insert on the floor and there’s a lot of people that draw a lot of different attention. I could be out there with Tyrese Maxey, James Harden, Tobias Harris, and Georges Niang. I mean, that’s scoring at every position!
“So really it’s about going out there and doing the best I can to get those guys open because nine times out of 10 I’m going to get the rebound off of it.”
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Montrezl Harrell Sounds Off on Sixers After Drastic Role-Change