The reigning NBA Sixth Man of The Year had a pretty tough couple of months. Following the death of his grandmother in late July, Trez joined his team in Orlando distracted from the very start and it affected his play on the court.
In fact, throughout the entirety of the bubble restart, Harrell never really returned to his regular-season form, whether for one reason or another. And, to make matters worse, the Clippers ended up losing in the second round after blowing a 3-1 series lead against Denver.
These things have not reflected greatly on Trez as a player, and it seems his value as a free agent this offseason has taken a significant hit.
(via Jovan Buha of The Athletic)
Multiple league sources told The Athletic that Harrell’s current annual value on the market is somewhere between $8 million to $12 million, depending on the team, his role and the length of contract.
That’s a steep decrease from The Athletic’s report in December that Harrell sought a contract in the range of $20 million annually. Some league personnel even suggested he could play his way into a front-loaded, short-term deal worth around $25 million annually for a smaller-market team looking for an emerging young center. That’s clearly no longer the case.
It’s more than likely that Harrell will end up signing a one or two year deal with the hopes of regaining some of the value that he lost this summer. Whether that deal will be with the Clippers, though, is anyone’s guess.
Even despite these past few months, Montrezl has a lot to offer teams in terms of energy and effort. He’s also a very capable offensive player.
Honestly, it will be interesting to see where he ends up and if he can ever get the $20 million annual deal he was hoping for.
