{"id":35083,"date":"2020-11-23T18:30:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T23:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=35083"},"modified":"2020-11-23T17:00:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T22:00:05","slug":"report-wesley-matthews-montrezl-harrell-agree-deals-with-los-angeles-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2020\/11\/23\/report-wesley-matthews-montrezl-harrell-agree-deals-with-los-angeles-lakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Wesley Matthews, Montrezl Harrell Agree to Deals with the Los Angeles Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The reigning NBA champs made some more splashes in free agency. According to reports, the Los Angeles Lakers have signed two more free agents in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/matthwe02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wesley Matthews<\/a> <\/strong>and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/harremo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Montrezl Harrell<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Matthews, a free-agent wing player, signed a one-year and $3.6 million deal with the reigning champs.\u00a0<em>The Athletic&#8217;s<\/em> Shams Charania reported this deal on Friday evening. Right in the midst of losing center <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/howardw01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwight Howard<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/76ers\/\" target=\"_self\">Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>, the Lakers also signed Harrell to a two-year deal. According to agent Rich Paul, Harrell&#8217;s deal is for the midlevel exception, where he will make $9.25 million the first year and $9.72 million the second. The second-year is a player option.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wesley Matthews is expected to sign with the Lakers, per <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ShamsCharania<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mxcvRRdVht\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/mxcvRRdVht<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/1329929203056144384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 20, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Wesley Matthews and Montrezl Harrell&#8217;s Impact on the Los Angeles Lakers<\/h2>\n<p>Matthews is a solid role player option for the Lakers to sign. The 34-year old veteran started 67 games with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/bucks\/\" target=\"_self\">Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> and averaged 7.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game last season. He also shot 36.4 percent from the arc before turning down his $2.7 million player option.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Bucks still have\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/divindo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donte DiVincenzo<\/a> <\/strong>since the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bogdabo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bogdan Bogdanovic<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>sign-and-trade deal fell through on Thursday afternoon. DiVincenzo will take over the shooting guard position, but the Bucks&#8217; wing depth took a hit.<\/p>\n<p>Since the Lakers traded away <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greenda02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danny Green<\/a>, <\/strong>Matthews is a solid replacement, since he is a reliable defender and three-point shooter with postseason experience. He will help bolster the Lakers&#8217; roster as another key bench piece.<\/p>\n<p>Harrell is the reigning Sixth Man of the Year for a reason: his tenacity and aggressive style of play. He averaged career-highs of 18.6 points and 7.1 rebounds with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/clippers\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> last season. He finished tied for fourth in field goal percentage (58 percent) and led the league in double-doubles off the bench with 11. Despite these strong numbers, Harrell has something to prove this season: bouncing back from a poor playoffs performance.<\/p>\n<p>He only averaged 10.5 points and 2.9 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game during the postseason. However, Harrell has the advantage of playing next to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>whose defensive abilities can help leverage his weaknesses. He also dominates in pick-and-roll scenarios, an area\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>thrives in. The Lakers are not done yet, but this is a strong offseason start for the reigning champs.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"z_kVoVWhSoJymMHUrOnQlQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1188074438\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'z_kVoVWhSoJymMHUrOnQlQ',sig:'5B3vhqwBJ2l5StVf0uxuByzI5lJ1ycfljp42VxC1wSU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1188074438',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The reigning NBA champs made some more splashes in free agency. According to reports, the Los Angeles Lakers have signed two more free agents in Wesley Matthews and Montrezl Harrell. Matthews, a free-agent wing player, signed a one-year and $3.6 million deal with the reigning champs.\u00a0The Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania reported this deal on Friday evening. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3525,"featured_media":35207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,62],"tags":[152,219,1398,96,274],"class_list":["post-35083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-montrezl-harrell","tag-nba","tag-wesley-matthews"],"modified_by":"Adam Taylor McKillop, Associate Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3525"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}