NOVEMBER 22: The Lakers have officially signed Harrell, per a press release from the team. He and Marc Gasol – who reached an agreement with L.A. on Sunday – will replace JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard up front.
NOVEMBER 20: The Lakers have agreed to a two-year deal with free agent center Montrezl Harrell, agent Rich Paul tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) first reported that the two sides were nearing an agreement.
This is one of the more surprising pieces of news tonight, as Harrell has spent the last three seasons with Los Angeles’ other team, the Clippers. The big man is coming off the best year of his career, having averaged 18.6 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 1.7 APG in 63 games (27.8 MPG). He was named the league Sixth Man of the Year in September.
Coming off such a productive season, Harrell was expected to be in line for a significant raise, but his pay bump will be a more modest one. He’s expected to sign for about $19MM over two years, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, who tweets that the second year will be a player option.
That price allows the Lakers to slide him into their mid-level exception. According to Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link), Harrell will be turning down more money from the Hornets to join the Lakers. It’s fair to assume the big man’s Klutch Sports connection helped seal the deal for the Lakers — LeBron James and Anthony Davis are among his new teammates who are also repped by Klutch.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN outlines (via Twitter), with Harrell getting the full MLE and Wesley Matthews being signed using the Lakers’ bi-annual exception, the team is now hard-capped and has about $20MM in wiggle room below that threshold. With nine players under contract so far, there’s still a chance the team could bring back some of its own unsigned free agents, but it’ll be a tight fit squeezing in a market-value deal for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and filling out the rest of the roster.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wut?
Crazy money for the next version of Dwight Howard. Seems like a Magic move.
Dwight couldn’t score anywhere near 18ppg. Or down 7RPG per game. Plus foul trouble. I’d say this is an upgrade.
Did you see him during the playoffs? Harrell can’t defend, shoot or rebound well
Pretty sure lebron will make him a much better player, just look at kcp, green, Dwight improved playing with him.
Green was worse with the lakers.
Guess that’s why they didn’t fight as hard for Dwight
6th man of the year and the runner up both on the same bench..Lakers aren’t playing around. They had to settle after Kawhi dipped on them but they are being very aggressive. Love it.
Must be for the MLE. They don’t have any more than that available.
I guess
9.3m MLE
Exactly
Great deal for the lakers
Ibaka would have been a better one.
Bringing back Dwight seems like a better move but they’re both pretty similar.
Clippers are done
Warriors can defeat Clippers without Klay
How did the Knicks or hornets not offer more?
How does Meyers Leonard get more than him? Lol
Because Meyers contract may be used to trade for a star.
Heat had an inside track to re sign Leonard and probably wanted to stick with there guy over a possibly cheaper player. Also Harrell can change teams without moving very far with this
They did. He wanted to play in LA
He didn’t. Player option vs Team option in the second year.
I dont like this signing, howard seems a nice fit and is cheaper!
18.5 ppg and makes lakers bench better than last year….could play center or back up ad. The rotations with Schroeder will be nasty.
This free agency is showing that sometimes perception is more important than production. Harrell is getting less than meyers leonard because leonard is 7ft and can hit an occasional 3.
Doesn’t a lot of it has to do with cap space? Lakers only had that mid-level thing. That’s all they could pay him.
Heat had an inside track to re sign Leonard and probably wanted to stick with there guy over a possibly cheaper player. Also Harrell can change teams without moving very far with this
Lakers are super loaded now…
Great value, even though I think his impact can be overrated. Great work by Laker FO this offseason. With limited resources, they’ve added the second facilitator they couldn’t at the deadline, and upgraded at center, and mitigate any losses on the wings. They may even have a path to add Bradley or KCP under the hard cap. Don’t know.
Seems to take them out of the running for Ibaka in my mind.
Agree, I’m just curious who they sign with remaining 20 million, I hope kcp isn’t back for A ridiculous sum.
Ibaka was a better fit, but still a good signing, no doubt.
I believe this is a upgrade over Howard and taking him from the Clippers make them worse. Matthews,Schroder and Harrell.I like the moves so far. Howard and any other Laker players that leave I say thank you for bringing title back home. Lakers will win again.
Thompson might go to the Clippers now though.
Doubtful he is a clutch sports guy I’m willing to bet he and kcp are resigning it’s just a matter of price and making dollars work.
It says Lebron and AD are among his new teammates; however, AD is a free agent. ;)
harrrel should practice shooting 1,000 shots now at the 3 point line! he needs it, LOL
Why? That would be a waste of time, he’s not a shooter.
Lakers fans: Does this roster looks better than last season? or not?
1. Anthony Davis – PF/C
2. Lebron James – SF/PF/PG
3. Dennis Schroeder – PG
4. Montrez Harrel – PF/C
5. Javale Mcgee – C
6. Wesley Matthews – SG
7. Alex Caruso – SG
8. Talen Horton-Tucker – SG
9. Tres Tinkle – SF/SG
10. Zavier Simpson – PG
11. Jared Dudley – SG
Kyle kuzma
yup i missed that, sorry…
What are the Lakers thinking? I believe the Lakers have downgraded from last year. Sure Harrell and Schroder were good players in the regular season but their weaknesses was exposed in the playoffs. Mathews used to be a good role player and shooter and defender but he has degreased recently. Let see how this works but in my opinion Lakers defense has gotten worse and their spacing capabilities has decreased.
yup, i agree, defensively they’re not that good than last season.
Both Mathews and Denis are better shooters at this point than Danny Green. Trez will be a beast off the bench where other than lobs, Lakers had zero production inside. I’d like to bring back KCP but I don’t get your argument
Don’t wanna hear about the Lakers depth issues anymore. They just stole the Clippers 6th man and got another one in Schroder.
Except they will both be needed as starters.
McGee will start and I’m guessing one of Pope or Bradley. Been in LA my whole king old ass life. Same old Clippers. I’m literally busting a gut
Free agency isn’t done.
big if true
That moment when you are the defending world champions and everyone talked about you’re number one weakness and you went out with a signing as well as a trade and fixed that weakness in the blink of an eye.
Next is Melo please
Bron
AD
Harrell
Schroder
Mathews
Kuzma
Melo
Dudley
Bradley
McGee
Caruso
That’s a solid locker room and rotation