Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers shuffled up the roster this offseason. They’ve lost Danny Green, Dwight Howard, Avery Bradley, and Rajon Rondo, only to replace them with experienced and talented veterans (Marc Gasol and Wesley Matthews) as well as some young, explosive offensive players (Dennis Schröder and Montrezl Harrell).
The latter of those two players exhibits a style of repeatedly attacking the basket, as Montrezl Harrell will seemingly fit very well with the Lakers. That was Dwight Howard’s MO, as Harrell will easily fit into Howard’s role on the offensive end and then some. However, Howard definitely did not get as many shots or touches as Harrell received on the Clippers, so it’s fair to worry whether or not Harrell will be pleased with his amount of play on the Lakers.
The man himself is not worried. When he was asked about his fit next to the two who will take most of the touches — LeBron James and Anthony Davis — Montrezl Harrell had this to say (per Mike Trudell of the Lakers):
“That’s not really a hard thing to do,” he offered. “You’re playing with two premier superstars in our league, LeBron and AD, these guys’ records speak for themselves, the names speak for themselves. When you have guys on the floor of that high caliber, I don’t feel it’s going to take that much getting used to. I don’t feel like I have to play one particular style really. Just basically want to do anything that it takes to win the game. That’s all that really matters.”
It may be a phony narrative conjured up by the talking heads going into the season, but you’d probably be foolish to think that Harrell were to come into training camp and be surprised by how much of the offense was run through LeBron James and Anthony Davis compared to him. He knows what he’s getting into, and that’s proven winning basketball with the Lakers as they come off their championship. Harrell added this, as he’s obviously ready to join that winning basketball.
“I play a role of whatever it takes,” Harrell concluded. “Whatever it takes to win.”
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