Los Angeles Clippers forward Montrezl Harrell is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. There was a time when his value was surging. Now, however, the market for his services appears to have declined substantially.
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.
The Clippers will need to make a decision with regards to Harrell's future with the team. Will they be interested in keeping him aboard, or will they look for a sign-and-trade? Notably, the Clippers hold Bird rights on Harrell, which means they can exceed the cap to sign him to whatever contract the two sides agree on.
According to some reports, the Clippers are interested in signing Harrell as a free agent. Whether or not this idea comes to pass will rely a lot on the team's salary and luxury caps for the coming season. L.A. has roughly $114 million going out in salary, leaving them without much room for extravagant additions.
Harrell is coming off of his best season in the NBA. The former second round pick made 63 regular season appearances with the Clippers, racking up averages of 18.6 points on 58.0 percent shooting from the field, 7.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 blocks in 27.8 minutes per outing. Unfortunately, though, L.A. was sent home from the playoffs in the semifinal round (4-3 series loss to the Denver Nuggets).
For now, we'll have to wait and see if the Clippers are indeed interested in bringing Harrell back. Other teams will certainly be interested in his services.
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