Shaquille Harrison Signs 10-Day Deal With Trail Blazers

9:03pm: The Blazers have officially signed Harrison, the team announced in a press release.

No corresponding roster move was announced, so Portland completed the signing using a hardship exception, which grants teams with several injured players extra roster spots on a temporary basis. The banged-up club is now carrying 19 players (15 on standard contracts, two on 10-days, and a pair on two-way deals).

8:37pm: Free agent guard Shaquille Harrison has agreed to a 10-day deal with the Trail Blazers, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Woj notes that Harrison has been playing with the Lakers’ NBAGL affiliate club, the South Bay Lakers, for the duration of the 2022/23 season.

The 29-year-old has enjoyed a solid couple years in the G League. In 2021/22, while playing for the Sixers’ G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats, he posted averages of 12.7 PPG, 6.4 APG, 4.6 RPG, 2.1 SPG and 0.8 BPG in 27 games. For his efforts, Harrison was named to the G League All-Defensive Team and was the league’s 2022 Defensive Player of the Year.

This season with South Bay, he’s averaged 13.6 PPG on .493/.246/.707 shooting splits. He’s also dishing out 8.3 APG, pulling down 6.2 RPG, swiping 2.1 SPG and posting 0.9 BPG a night.

Most recently at the NBA level, Harrison appeared in just two games with the Nets on a 10-day deal in 2021/22. Since going undrafted out of Tulsa in 2016, he has appeared in 175 total NBA games, averaging 5.2 PPG, 2.4 RPG and 1.5 APG with the Nets, Suns, Bulls, Jazz, and Nuggets.

Harrison is the second new addition to Portland’s roster today. The Trail Blazers previously inked another 6’4″ guard, Skylar Mays, to a 10-day deal.

Portland recently shut down All-Star point guard Damian Lillard for the rest of the regular season, and is clearly focused on the future. The club appears doomed to miss its second consecutive postseason. With a 32-44 record, the Trail Blazers are presently 5.5 games behind the 10th-seeded Thunder, with just six contests remaining on their schedule.