While the Portland Trail Blazers await the decision of Oklahoma City on whether they will match the offer sheet Enes Kanter signed with them, they have also reportedly made another move - Moe Harkless has reportedly been acquired from the Magic for a future second round pick according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Having to only give up a second round pick makes this a very low risk move for the Blazers who seem to be going in a younger direction after losing LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews in free agency and trading Nicolas Batum. Aside from the reported Harkless deal, the Blazers also landed Mason Plumlee, Al-Farouq Aminu, Noah Vonleh and Ed Davis who are all younger players.
Harkless was the 15th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft but has yet to find his footing in the NBA. Still just 22, Harkless played his first three NBA seasons with the Orlando Magic and is coming off the worst of his three NBA seasons.
In his first two seasons Harkless got regular minutes and played pretty well scoring about eight points a game and shooting 46 percent, but last season his numbers were way down across the board as he shot 18 percent from three and averaged only 15 minutes a game.
As mentioned earlier, Harkless is still extremely young especially for someone that has already played three NBA seasons. The Blazers made a no risk move here and the potential payoff is big because of Harkless' upside. Now that Harkless will have a change of scenery it is possible that he can come on strong in Portland and start to live up to the promise that he has always had. He has work to do to get there, but the Blazers made a solid move by taking a chance on a kid that is still very young and very talented.
