Maurice Harkless (ankle) will be given a lot of opportunity to with the Blazers this season, the Boston Globe reports. "Mo was very high on our board a few years ago in the draft," general manager Neil Olshey said. "We were excited about him. He has a lot
Harkless (ankle) will be given a lot of opportunity to with the Blazers this season, the Boston Globe reports. "Mo was very high on our board a few years ago in the draft," general manager Neil Olshey said. "We were excited about him. He has a lot of potential. He fits our model right now; he's an emerging young player. He's got a lot of talent. We have a lot of faith in our player development staff and our coaches that guys hit their ceilings, and we know Mo's not even close to his ceiling at this point. He's going to get a great opportunity with us to be the player we loved coming out of the draft."
Analysis:
Harkless is entering his fourth season in the NBA at just 22 years old. After playing 26 minutes per game as a rookie, the lanky wing saw his minutes decrease to 24 mpg in his sophomore season and 15 mpg last season. Harkless has a lot of upside and potential to at least be a good rotation piece, but his value this season will depend on how many minutes he can earn on the wing. The Trail Blazers are projected to start C.J. McCollum and Al-Farouq Aminu on the wing, but if either player struggles at the start of the season, Harkless will be their to poach minutes. The most glaring issue with Harkless is that fact that he fell out of the Magic's rotation last season and was often left squandered on the bench, playing in just 45 games. If a young Magic team couldn't find minutes for Harkless, there should be a healthy dose of skepticism regarding how much he can develop in the NBA. He is currently dealing with an ankle injury suffered in preparation for the FIBA Americas tournament, and he left the Puerto Rican national team to return to Portland to have the ankle examined. It is unclear whether he'll return to play in the tournament that begins August 31st.