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I've griped with quite a bit of the Montrezl Harrell play this postseason but I also think the coaching staff has done a piss poor job of maximizing his skill set. For instance, he averaged 1.324 PPP rolling to the basket this regular season. It's 1.000 PPP in the postseason.
Now, on the surface, this seems like a him problem, right? He's obviously less efficient so it has to be on him. But what if I told you he's averaging just 0.91 rolls to the basket per game in the postseason compared to the 2.2 he averaged during the regular season?
Harrell was a really good roll man this regular season but they've stopped letting him roll the basket and are instead sticking him in the dunker spot for some reason, which has shrunk the floor for everyone involved.
It's made life harder for the Clippers by not having the big set a pick and then actually roll or, in JaMychal Green's case, even pop off of it. It's just really bogged things down. And I'm honestly confused as to why this happened. It doesn't make much sense.
If you're going to play Harrell, that's fine. But you have to maximize his role and they're not doing that. It's too much one-on-one with him or having him in the dunker spot. At least let him screen and roll. Get him the ball on the move so he can actually exploit the gaps.
There's been way too much of whatever the hell this is.
And whatever this is.
Like, you're willingly letting Denver's best rim protector (Mason Plumlee) camp out closer to the rim because you're leaving one of the best roll guys in the business (Montrezl Harrell) standing in the dunker spot for quite a while. It's just nonsensical stuff.
You want an absolutely wild stat? According to Synergy, DeAndre Jordan had just 6 pick-and-roll roll man possessions in the 2016 first round series against Portland. The center at the time on Portland? Mason Plumlee. Only 3 of those came with Plumlee on the floor.
DeAndre Jordan went from averaging 2.35 roll man possessions per game that regular season to 1.0 in the postseason. Turned the best pick-and-roll threat into a bystander. Conversely, only 4 of Harrell's 10 roll man possessions in this series have come with Plumlee on the floor.
Anyways, if you're going to play Harrell (and they're going to), you need to maximize his talent. Have him on the move. Have him screening and rolling more. Have his guy get back-screened so he can roll into back cuts. Do something. Stop having him stationary. Help him.
This is also a very strange small sample size thing that's happened in this series.
I don't pretend to know why this is happening, but it is something that is happening. And the George-led bench units have been good in this series whereas the Kawhi ones have not. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but it is what it is. We shall see what happens in Game 6.
