Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
3:58pm: The Blazers have followed with a press release of their own, identifying the pick going to Orlando as a 2020 second-rounder. That pick is top-55 protected, according to Casey Holdahl of Trailblazers.com. It’s Portland’s own pick, and if it doesn’t convey to Orlando that year, the Blazers don’t have to give the Magic anything, as RealGM notes.
TUESDAY, 3:46pm: The deal is official, the Magic announced via press release. Orlando refers to its acquisition as a conditional second-round pick, suggesting that the protection on it is such that it may never convey to the Magic.
SUNDAY, 5:27pm: The Magic are trading forward Maurice Harkless to the Blazers for a future second-round pick, reports Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski (on Twitter).
The move does not come across as a complete shock because Orlando was reportedly willing to deal Harkless at the deadline. However, at that time, the team was seeking a first-round pick or talented young player in return. The 22-year-old former first-rounder out of St. John’s is set to earn $2,894,059 during the 2015/16 campaign. Despite being a high draft pick, Harkless has not met his full potential. In his third year, Harkless averaged only 3.5 points per game and only received 15 minutes of playing time per game.
Both Orlando and Portland are below the cap, so it’s a move that essentially transfers a measure of cap flexibility from one team to the other. It’s another move in a busy offseason for the Blazers. With LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews gone, Portland has done a decent job of retooling with athletic young players. Portland signed Al-Farouq Aminu and signed Ed Davis.
Maybe the change of scenary will allow him to show his talent more. Portland did a decent job of retooling a bit
Another former 1st rd pick to compete for playing time. Hopefully one or two of these young guys olshey has acquired this summer pans out.
As a Magic fan, I loved Maurice Harkless’ ability. He was never really given the chance or the confidence by Vaughn to reach his potential. Hopefully he does well in Portland.