Restricted free agent Maurice Harkless earned himself a massive pay day in his new deal with the Portland Trail Blazers four four-years, $40+ million.
According to Shams Charania of The Vertical of Yahoo! Sports, the Portland Trail Blazers have agreed to a four-year contract extension worth upwards of $40 million with small forward Maurice Harkless.
RFA Moe Harkless has agreed to a four-year, $40M-plus deal to re-sign with the Portland Trail Blazers, league sources tell The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 26, 2016
Portland continues to throw massive contract extensions to players of its young corps. After bringing back center Meyers Leonard and wing Allen Crabbe in restricted free agency, Portland decided to keep star shooting guard C.J. McCollum on a massive multi-year contract extension. Harkless is now the most recent Trail Blazers player to receive a lucrative multi-season offer.
Harkless came into the NBA back in 2012 as the No. 15 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic out of St. John’s University. While he was an intriguing small forward prospect coming out of the Big East, Orlando never found a way to best feature their former first round pick. Harkless never averaged double figures scoring in three seasons with the Magic.
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Though he didn’t start as often for the 2015-16 Trail Blazers as he did with the Magic, he did carve out a solid rotational role for Terry Stotts’ Portland club last season, averaging 6.4 points per game in 18.7 minutes per contest.
Where is Portland getting all of this cash to re-sign its young corps? The Trail Blazers are owned by former Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, so that might be a reason behind the Trail Blazers’ spending spree of late.
However, it seems abundantly clear that Stotts and general manager Neil Olshey want to retain as much of the Trail Blazers’ dynamic young corps as they can. Entering 2016-17, the Trail Blazers are a dark horse contender to reach the Western Conference Finals.