The Portland Trail Blazers continue to find value on the market for young, athletic players with upside.
The Blazers have acquired Orlando Magic forward Maurice “Moe” Harkless for a future second round pick, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
The acquisition of Harkless fits the trend of the Blazers’ roster moves this summer, which began with the trade of Nicolas Batum for Noah Vonleh and Gerald Henderson.
According to RealGM.com, the Blazers owe second rounders to other teams until 2018.
Only 22 years old, Harkless can cycle between both forward positions.
Kanter offer matched — The Oklahoma City Thunder have matched the 4-year maximum offer sheet from the Blazers for center Enes Kanter, according to Yahoo! Sports.
The Blazers signed Kanter to the offer sheet worth $70 million on Thursday afternoon, giving the Thunder three days to match, which they did.
Thunder GM Sam Presti, before he had seen the offer sheet, told The Oklahoman that the Thunder planned to match any and all offers for Kanter.
Oklahoma City acquired the center in a trade with the Utah Jazz last season, and he helped the Thunder while Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka battled injuries. He averaged 13.8 points and 7.8 rebounds for Utah, but those numbers ballooned to 18.7 points and 11.0 rebounds with the Thunder.
Blazers top Mavericks in summer league — Noah Vonleh played his first game as a Trail Blazers on Sunday evening, and his presence helped power the Blazers to their first win of the Las Vegas Summer League 93-88 over the Dallas Mavericks.
Vonleh suffered an ankle injury during their summer league training camp, causing him to miss the first summer league game.
He played 29 minutes, scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds while featured as part of Portland’s offensive attack.
Tim Frazier kept doing a little bit of everything and playing the role of floor general to perfection. He finished with 14 points, eight assists and five rebounds. Frazier has been Portland’s best player through two games, but the team was much improved offensively with Vonleh in the mix.
Vonleh’s versatility caused for some match-up problems when the Blazers played him at center.
Allen Crabbe led the Blazers with 24 points.
The Blazers don’t play again until Tuesday when they take on the San Antonio Spurs.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
