LA Clippers' Montrezl Harrell Wins NBA Hustle Award
LA Clippers forward Montrezl Harrell was officially recognized with the NBA's Hustle Award on Wednesday.
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00:00L.A. Clippers forward Montrezl Harrell was officially recognized with the NBA's Hustle Award for this season on Wednesday, the league announced in a memo.
00:07Part of the announcement of the award is given to the player that, quote,
00:10makes the energy and effort placed to help his team win throughout the season with an emphasis on hustle stats.
00:15Essentially, it's given to the player that puts their bottom of the line more than anyone else.
00:19Something we saw Harrell do plenty of throughout the season.
00:22Previous winners of the award include Marcus Smart, Amir Johnson and Patrick Beverly.
00:27Now, Harrell has long been praised for his motor and the numbers show that that praise isn't misplaced.
00:31Through March 11th, which was the end of the season before the bubble season began,
00:35he ranked at one of the top of numerous hustle categories, including defensive box outs where he ranked first,
00:41charges drawn ranking first, all box outs ranking fourth, and he tested shots ranking 11th.
00:46Harrell also ranked 28th in screen assists and 31st in offensive box outs as well.
00:53These aren't stats that show up in the box score, but they're arguably just as important.
00:56A drawn charge, for example, affords a turnover and comes the opportunity of whipping a made bucket off the slate.
01:01Harrell was also named this year's NBA Sixth Man of the Year for the first time in his career,
01:06beating out teammate Lou Williams and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Dennis Schroeder.
01:10Harrell averaged career high marks in points with 18.6 and rebounds at 7.1 in less than 28 minutes per game this season.
01:17While that success didn't necessarily cut over to the postseason this year,
01:20it's hard to deny that Harrell is one of the hardest working players in the NBA today.