National Basketball Association

Portland Trail Blazers Silver Lining: Maurice Harkless

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:18 p.m. ET

Fansided, Jeff Luten/FanSided via Rip City Project

The brutally underwhelming Trail Blazers start to the season is causing fans to overlook the improvement of Maurice Harkless

Lately, the talk surrounding the Portland Trail Blazers is wildly negative. We are all aware of the issues surrounding the defense and the fact that Portland is a significantly worse team than expected. In the midst of the frustration, it can be easy to overlook the positive things that are happening.

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Maurice Harkless is one of the few bright spots for the Blazers to start the season. Before the season began, there was a whirlwind of questions about who would start at the small forward and who would become the third offensive option for Portland. Harkless has effectively answered all of those questions and more.

In his second year in Portland Harkless has improved his 3PFG% drastically from that of last year. During the 2015-16 season the fifth-year forward out of St. John’s shot 27.9% from deep and to start his 2016-17 campaign Harkless is shooting 34.8% from beyond the arc. (Basketball-reference)

Partially as a result of his improved shooting, and partially as a result of increased playing time, Harkless has nearly doubled his scoring average from his first season in Portland. During a four-game home-stand in late November, Harkless broke out and averaged 19.3 points a game. Although his shooting has slowed as of late, he’s clearly developed as a third option for the offense.

Harkless was a bargain for Neil Olshey

Harkless becoming the third option offensively while remaining one of the more versatile defenders on the team is starting to make his contract look like an absolute steal. Yes, we go on and on about how expensive Evan Turner and Allen Crabbe are given their production. All of that is true and should be talked about, but that can overshadow the fact that Harkless is an absolute bargain over the next four years.

It’s safe to say that the deal that GM Neil Olshey brought Harkless back to Portland for the next few years will be one of the better decisions made in the summer of 2016. Harkless is in the first year of a 4-year $40M contract in the offseason. That is around half the money due for Crabbe over the next four years. He is even making a little less than rotation big-man Meyers Leonard.

At just 23 years old, Harkless still has room to improve his game and has shown that he is willing to put in the work to get better. Assuming that he does continue to grow his game, Maurice will likely receive a large pay raise when his contract his up after four years. Even in the case that Harkless doesn’t improve much, and this is what he is going to be, the deal is still a great one for the team to have as they continue to build around Damian Lillard through his prime.