Milwaukee Bucks: Considering George Hill’s Sixth Man of the Year challengers

Montrezl Harrell

The L.A. Clippers were the big winners of last offseason and are in quite the battle for superiority in the City of Angels with their in-arena rival and Western Conference leader, the Los Angeles Lakers.

It hasn’t been as seamless of a season as the Clippers were likely envisioning, but at 37-18, the holdovers they had in place, such as Montrezl Harrell, have helped them to improve on the mark they set last season after a seismic offseason.

Harrell hasn’t been the same model of efficiency like he has throughout his Clippers tenure, but the undersized bruising big man had still given his team a huge scoring lift off the bench while supplying the trademark tenacity on the glass. The Louisville product is currently putting up a career-high 18.8 points on 57.6 percent shooting from the field, along with 7.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 blocks over his 54 appearances, two of those being starts, across 28.4 minutes per game.

Harrell has continued to fight through his physical and skill limitations and the impact he’s been able to make on the Clippers has been paramount as he has a +5.8 net rating over his 1,533 minutes on the floor, good for sixth on the Clippers roster.

After finishing as a finalist for the award last season, it’s hard to determine whether Harrell will ultimately get the credit for lifting the Clippers’ bench, especially with his pick-and-roll partner Lou Williams playing a similar role in the backcourt. Speaking of which…