"Never offered me to come back" - Former Sixth Man of the Year winner divulges it felt "personal" when he left Clippers for Lakers
When he was still in the NBA, Montrezl Harrell used to move around from different teams a lot such as the LA Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers. Before joining the Lakers, Montrezl Harrell started to make noise in the league when he was with the Clippers.
During his time with the Clippers, Harrell managed to put up 15.2 points (60.7% shooting) and 5.8 rebounds in three seasons. He was a pivotal bench piece for the team alongside Lou Williams, making the Clippers one of the deepest teams at the time.
After the 2019-20 season, Harrell signed with the Lakers on a two-year $19 million contract, as per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Looking back on it, the 2020 Sixth Man of the Year revealed in an interview on "No Chill with Gilbert Arenas" that the Clippers did not plan on re-signing him.
"After everything took place with the Clippers and everything that happened and we did that whole run, everything we did with the bubble, they [Clippers] never offered me to come back," Harrell said. "It's a different front office. They started grabbing other pieces. Guys started trying, a lot go with it."
Despite having his best season yet, the Clippers decided to move to a different location when it came to the organization's long-term plans with him. During the 2019-20 season, Montrezl Harrell put up 18.6 points (58.0% shooting) and 7.1 rebounds per game.
It was a disheartening situation for Harrell after his excellent production for three seasons with the Clippers. After a disappointing exit in the 2020 playoffs, the organization knew that they needed to make changes and unfortunately, it meant that Harrell would not be staying with the team.
Montrezl Harrell's time with the Los Angeles Lakers
During his one season with the purple and gold back in 2020-21, Montrezl Harrell's numbers were down compared to his previous season with the Clippers. The former Lakers big man only managed to put up 13.5 points (62.2% shooting) and 6.2 rebounds per game.
After his 2020-21 season, he was traded to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Russell Westbrook. He had much better numbers (14.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per game) but were nowhere close to what he was averaging back with the Clippers.
Interestingly, Harrell didn't mince his words when he briefly described how his time was with the Lakers, as per NBC Sports Washington's Chase Hughes.
"I didn't get to be utilized how I wanted to be last year," Harrell said. "I damn near felt like I had a season off."
Compared to how he was properly utilized with the Clippers, the Lakers struggled in playing to Harrell's strengths on the court which exposed some of his weaknesses, leading to subpar production.