Family Emergency Compels Harrell To Leave Campus

Clippers power forward/center Montrezl Harrell has departed the NBA’s Orlando campus due to a family emergency, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Harrell intends to return to the Disney World campus this season.

Harrell, a leading candidate for the 2019/20 Sixth Man of the Year Award, has been enjoying the best season of his five-year NBA career with Los Angeles. In just 27.6 MPG across 63 games, he boasts a slash line of 18.6 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 1.7 APG and 1.1 BPG. The 44-20 Clippers are the No. 2 seed in the West.

The 25-year-old Harrell, undersized at 6’7″, will be an unrestricted free agent in a shallow class this offseason. He is coming off a sweetheart two-year, $12MM contract extension he signed with the Clippers in 2018, and looks ready to command a major raise after this season.

Should Harrell miss any games in the season restart, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers could look to spell some of his minutes with backup big men JaMychal Green and Patrick Patterson — plus maybe even new addition Joakim Noah. Rivers claimed to not know the status of starting center Ivica Zubac in the Orlando campus. “As far as guys that have showed up and not showed up, we don’t talk about that,” Rivers said. “So we’re going to continue to not talk about it.”

The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor detailed the league protocols for players departing and returning to campus when addressing yesterday’s departure of Zion Williamson. Any player who departs the Orlando campus must test negative for COVID-19 for seven consecutive days ahead of his return (or test negative every day, if he’s away for fewer than seven days). After that player returns, he must undergo a four-day quarantine. If the player does not adhere to those testing rules, he will have to isolate himself in a 10-day quarantine after touching back down in Orlando.

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