And-Ones: Harrell, Scola, G League Trades, Salary Guarantees

Former Sixth Man of the Year Montrezl Harrell talks about his quest to get back to the NBA, his success in the Big3 and a variety of general basketball topics in an interview with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson. Harrell, 32, worked out last Saturday for the Rockets’ G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Vipers.

“Overall, I’m not going to lie, it was good, man,” he said. “I was able to get down there, get a couple of rounds in and the workout that I had post-practice with the coaching staff went really well.”

Harrell, who last played in the NBA during the 2022/23 season, has spent time in Australia, China and Puerto Rico since then. He set the Big3 single-game scoring record with 42 points this summer and joined a team of former Louisville players in The Basketball Tournament. He believes playing in such varied settings has helped to sharpen his game.

“Every system has a guy who sets screens, rolls hard to the basket, draws defenders and makes it easy for other guys to create open shots,” Harrell said. “Wherever you see that fit, it’s always going to be a factor and it’s always going to play. Even in today’s NBA game, yes, you have more three-point shooting and more space, and bigs who are able to pick and pop, but if you look at every team — even the ones that have won these past couple of years — they had a dominant roll threat to the point where that role puts pressure on the defense to collapse, opening up kick-outs for wide-open shots. That’s still a big part of my game.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

• Luis Scola, who played 10 NBA seasons before leaving for China in 2017, hopes to return to the league in some capacity, relays Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops. “I would like to work in the NBA,” Scola said in an interview with RANDOM. “I think it would be a good place for me. It is one of my ambitious goals, because it is difficult.”
• The Texas Legends, Dallas’ G League affiliate, were involved in a pair of trades this week. They sent Emanuel Miller’s returning player rights and a 2026 first-round pick to the Grand Rapids Gold (Denver’s affiliate) in exchange for first-rounders in 2026 and 2027, along with the returning player rights to Kessler Edwards, P.J. Hayes and Derek Ogbeide, the league announced. The Rip City Remix (Portland’s affiliate) announced that they have acquired the returning player rights to Mark Armstrong from Texas in exchange for the rights to Carlin Davidson and Garrett Denbow, along with a 2027 second-round pick.
• In a subscriber-only piece, Yossi Gozlan of the Third Apron examines the practice of increasing salary guarantees to complete trades.