While fans are waiting for the big move to come, the Sixers brought back center Montrezl Harrell on a one-year deal this week.
The 29-year-old center was a solid option during his time with the Clippers, but he’s since worn down into a role player at best. Some were confused by Harrell coming back to Philadelphia given the current roster construction.
Eliot Shorr-Parks and Kyle Neubeck of the Audacy Original Podcast “Clap Your Hands” shared their disdain for the Harrell signing and speculated why he was brought back.
“You should not be wasting roster spots on ‘Hey, this is a guy that Harden liked playing with seven years ago’ or whatever,” Neubeck said (4:00 in player above). “And they burned a lot of minutes on that last year in part because James had a slight preference for Montrezl over Paul Reed. That faded over time and Reed was the better player by the end of the year.”
The younger Reed emerged as a better option than Harrell last season, but the veteran is back anyway.
After signing Patrick Beverley and Mo Bamba, two moves that can be spun in positive ways, that doesn’t seem to be the same for Harrell.
“All the potential explanations are just bad,” Neubeck continued. “I don’t see how you can look at the Harrell deal – a declining player who had his worst year ever by a lot of metrics last year, who a lot of people were just thrilled to not see on the floor anymore. They got better as soon as he was pulled from the rotation at his position. There’s just no credible and positive explanation for bringing him back.”
Shorr-Parks echoed that sentiment, to put it lightly.
“Obviously, nobody wants him on the team,” he said. “I think last year there were spurts where he looked OK, but to your point, they were way better once he stopped playing. Paul Reed took that job over and he was way better.”
However, there is some speculation that Harrell and the Sixers had a handshake deal to come back on a new contract after the center opted out.
“If you view it that way, if Montrezl Harrell opts in, we’re sitting here going ‘Well that sucks, but there’s nothing the team can do about it,’” Shorr-Parks continued. “So maybe this is something where the Sixers don’t even really want him back but he was going to be back either way. You could make the argument well once he opts out you could just not bring him back but at the end of the day, it does suck. It’s a wasted roster spot.”
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