Montrezl Harrell started his first game this season versus the Phoenix Suns. Despite being a starter, the 27-year-old center played just 18 minutes and had 6 points.
The Los Angeles Lakers ended up losing 104-114. After the game, the Lakers’ head coach Frank Vogel shared his thoughts on Harrell’s role with the team.
“He’s a terrific player on both sides of the ball. He matches up well with bigs,” Vogel said. “When the teams play smaller lineups, you have to choose that battle are you going to try to punish them on the offensive end with his rolls and post-ups and try to minimize the three ball which is a big concern against this opponent or are you going to go small. Those are the tough decision you have to make throughout the course of a season. This one didn’t work for us tonight.”
“He can play against big lineups and small lineups,” he added. “I have confidence in Trez in both of those situations. But there’s situations where sometimes a small lineup might be better than him out there. That’s what we though was going to win the game for us tonight. That’s what we went with. It didn’t work out. But like I said, these are the tough decision you make throughout the course of the season.”
This season, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year is averaging 13.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game for the Lakers.
