6.4 RPG and 2.0 BPG in 19.0 minutes a game. .778 from the free throw line. That's a hell of an improvement and a fantastic trend for his career. He doesn't stick out in any one skill, but If he can turn himself into a rebounder/defender that can give us a extra possessions, he is invaluable. He is one of the few players on our team that can effectively guard a pick and roll, and offensively he sets the best screens that I have seen from our bigs. What have you guys seen from Trez this preseason and what is his outlook for the season?
He has always been a good offensive rebounder. He continues to impress on that end in preseason. However, he just doesn't haul in some defensive rebounds you'd expect him to. That was his predraft knock as well.
He looks like he's more comfortable on the offensive end, but until he falls in love with the art of rebounding, he'll be average at best. I'd love for him to become one of the old timer types that gets obsessed with going and getting a live ball. Omer Asik and Manimal seem to have it and a few others, but not many.
His individual total rebounding numbers may not be impressive or improve much, but the team may out rebound their opponents by an adequate margin when he's on the court. Nene and Roy Hibbert are both examples of this. Obviously Harrell hasn't played enough minutes in different lineups for us to know. The lineups from last season with Terry, Jones, and Ariza/Brewer struggled the most, for obvious reasons -- both soft and frequently failed to box out (Terry and Jones). Montezl doesn't have those problems.
Imo for Trez would be more important to develop a reliable outside shot (and i think he has a good form)...if he does that, he can easily play PF in this league, which is also his natural role.
I feel like defensive rebounding numbers don't tell the whole story and can often be very misleading. If the team as a whole does not perform statistically worse in terms of overall rebounding when Harrell is on the floor then it's fair to say Harrell wasn't getting rebounds because he was boxing out, tipping the ball to his teammates, or wasn't competing with his teammates for the rebounds. For example, Westbrook has high rebounding numbers for a guard. However, if you look at OKC's rebounding percentage with or without Westbrook on the floor, they aren't much better than James Harden's percentages. That would imply that Westbrook is grabbing a lot of low quality, uncontested rebounds that the bigs in OKC could have easily gotten. As long as the team's defensive rebounding numbers doesn't drop when Harrell is on the floor, I don't think there is all too much to be concerned about.
A downside to Harrell's energy and motor is that (from what I've seen), he has a tendency to over-pursue the ball and take himself out of position on the defensive glass. But I think he's solid at getting his body on people and boxing out.
His FG% would look pretty nice if he didn't attempt any 3's either, but his form looks good and it would be a tremendous weapon if it ever became reliable. He's got the physical tools and mentality to be a scrappy defensive bench PF. I do hope his rebounding improves, but he can be useful regardless.
The guy needs to make two improvements: 1) Be more methodic on defensive rebounding. He boxes out fairly frequently, I get it. But we will get someone else to box out. He needs to fully secure more defensive rebounds. The boxing out thing is overstated. I see rebounds go to opponents near him more often than they should. I see him making unnecessarily risky tips to teammates at times. If he has time to box out his man, then he has time to be the recipient of the box out too. I wish we had someone around like a Chuck Hayes who understands how to excel in these situations without relying exclusively on athleticism. 2) On offense, when he has a defender on him, he needs to bring the energy down a notch and put a quick thought into what to do. His decision making with the ball when there's a guy defending him near the basket has been less than stellar. It's the only time I want him to slow down. The rest of the time he should keep relentlessly attacking the opponent or empty space. There is a huge opportunity here for him, especially in D'Antoni's offense. At PF and backup C he can be a revelation. He is an ELITE offensive rebounder already, has good technique on defense for a youngster and a jack of a all trades on offense and clearly will improve there with time. Just a tiny bit more savvy decision making in a couple of important situations can go a long way for him. With D-Mo not signed, I was hoping he'd rip the minutes away from everyone but it hasn't exactly worked out that way. He has played decent basketball and earned some minutes which I guess is all you can ask for from a mid/late first rounder. It would have been awesome if Harrell and KJ had torn it up this summer, training camp and preseason and we got to watch those two impose their athleticism in D'Antoni's system. They have not been bad, in fact they've been decent. It's just that I had personally predicted them to be a bit better. We'll see. There's plenty of time and Harrell is still just 22 years old.
It would be a godsend If KJ and Trez could figure it out. We need some athletic freaks to combine with our shooters and slow white guys.
It depends. If DMo is there to box out, then I can see Harrell grab 10+ rebounds a game If No DMo to box out, then Harrell less than 4 RPG
His temper scares me. That smile after he sank that corner three delighted me. Overall, this preseason has been his best time as a Rocket in terms of consistently doing good stuff.
He has an 1.5 inch shorter standing reach than Capela. The dude has elite length, he just needs to work on the fundamentals as his athleticism will only go so far against NBA rotation players.
Well no. The same can't be said for Chuck Hayes because he was 1.5 inches shorter in height, 20lbs lighter, over half a foot shorter wingspan (6.25") and 4.5" shorter standing reach.... So pretty much a poor comparison all around. "Inches matter"...so do you do think the roughly 12 inches of extra body length Harrell has on Hayes might matter?
I really don't see a problem with Montrezl at PF. Physically he is exactly what you want. Long, quick, strong and smart. Perfect PF body. At C he is a bit undersized for certain, but the NBA is changing.
Meanwhile someone like Draymond Green is out there actively disproving how much a lot of these things we obsess over matter in today's NBA in a system that fits the actual players in front of them. Too much emphasis is placed on how far off the ideal body and skills players have for their assumed position and not enough on finding coaches who can adjust and put together what's in front of them. Coaching privilege and accountability has really killed aspects of the league in the last 15-20 years in my mind. And while I look forward to watching this team play, D'Antoni ball (and how often excuses get made for his team not being players of the right "fit") is a pretty great example.
Not at all. Chuck Hayes was just a technically sound player who used position and low center of gravity to move other players around. Someone else explained my point about standing reach so no need to rehash that.
