Moe Harkless

[Hawks339]

Should the Hawks pursue Moe Harkless?  Can play the 3 or 4, is he worth the risk if the staff can fix his shooting issues? 

Below is the article reference this question.

http://soaringdownsouth.com/2016/07/22/could-the-hawks-make-a-play-for-harkless/

[ViewsFromTheSquawk]

Y-E-S! I've been screaming for it since we missed out on the Derozan sweepstakes. 

[benhillboy]

One of the few players who've been in the league a while and I know absolutely nothing about.  His numbers aren't inspiring either.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, ViewsFromTheSquawk said:

Y-E-S! I've been screaming for it since we missed out on the Derozan sweepstakes. 

Whut the what?  You don't think Harkless would be as impactful as Derozan could've been, do you?

I tend to think there's a reason he's still unsigned.  Probably unwilling to accept a reasonable deal in light of all the money given out this summer

[ViewsFromTheSquawk]

20 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Whut the what?  You don't think Harkless would be as impactful as Derozan could've been, do you?

I tend to think there's a reason he's still unsigned.  Probably unwilling to accept a reasonable deal in light of all the money given out this summer

No but I definitely see a YOUNG starter who could average 15 for us and play some decent defense 

[Plastic Man]

We could have acquired him a year ago for nothing, so I doubt there's interest. I'm big on Harkless. He strongly improved his perimeter defense and shooting as he earned playing time in POR. 

[sturt]

Only if we lose Scott. But maybe then. Ironically enough, I've been on my own playing around with some ideas just in the last 24 hours. He might be a smart alternative to Moose. Might. Still thinking it through.

(Whoever writes for SDS, we must be mind-morphing... except not at the expense of losing Splitter who seems to be the most unappreciated talent on this roster by far.)

[Peoriabird]

Scouting report

+ Athletic wing entering his fourth NBA season at age 22 after one year at St. John's

+ Mediocre outside shooter. Doesn't really create his own offense off the dribble

+ Has tools to be a plus wing defender. Must consistently commit to defending

 

Intriguingly, his skill set is similar to the Blazers' likely starter at small forward. Like Aminu, Harkless isn't a consistent outside shooter. He's shot 30.9 percent from 3-point range during his NBA career, though he did shoot 38.3 percent on 183 attempts in 2013-14, offering some reason for hope. Since Harkless doesn't really make plays with the ball in his hands, that leaves him scrounging for offense via cuts -- something he's done better than Aminu -- as well as second chances and in transition.

 

The tools are there for Harkless defensively. He's listed at 6-foot-8, which might understate his height; Harkless measured nearly 6-foot-9 in shoes at the pre-draft combine, with a 7-foot wingspan. He's quick enough to defend either wing position and has accumulated steals and blocks when he's gotten regular playing time. If Harkless commits to defense, he'll earn regular minutes and possibly a new contract in Portland. If not, he might find himself playing for the veteran's minimum in 2015-16 -- or out of the league entirely.

[Guest]

I like Harkless. He would be a welcomed addition. 

[sturt]

I see him as a young buck defensive stopper first, with the potential to develop his shot. With Thabo's contract coming to an end, and given that he's been a starter on what proved to be a good team, there's some rationale for consideration.

[Trout7]

Never heard of him , but i guess he must be pretty awesome the way ya'll talk about him.

[Buzzard]

I don't know much about Harkless but Aminu is a physical/athletic beast. Some people compared him to Josh Smith when he came out of college.

[gurpilo]

I think he is a young and athletic 3 that can defend well and is a work in progress on offense, definately an upgrade over some bench players here and a good fit till Prince and Bembry develop if they ever develop on a starter, Harkless is better than them today and can provide quality minutes as a big 3, a player we miss really

[Jody23]

Harkless is a RFA.  Portland would likely match most offers.  Last I saw, he and Portland were still apart on the figures for a new deal.  He's a guy who can play both the 3 and 4 and would be an awesome get for the Hawks.

[sturt]

As things currently are, I've been one to think that Budcox is prepared to go to war with this roster, minus either Scott or Moose, depending on how Scott's legal trouble evolves before the start of the season--Scott being Plan A, and Moose being Plan B. Therefore, I've been working with these observations...

- Total salary against the cap (ie, excluding salaries of Delaney and Jack, signed w/ exceptions) of the 15-man assuming Scott plays for us and excluding the unguaranteed portion of Moose's contract is $94,257,115,

- Total salary against the cap of the 15-man assuming Moose plays for us and excluding Scott is $91,446,006.

(source: Basketball Insiders and also Yahoo which indicates Moose' guaranteed portion of his salary to be $493,471)

Salary cap is $94,143,000.

So, either there is some discrepancy b/t the salaries as they've been reported vs. as what they actually are, or another move of some kind would have to occur to get under the cap. I'm inclined to assume that it's the former since only about $100,000 separates those two numbers.

As said above, personally, I'm persuaded if Scott is able to play, that's the strong preference given his production, and all the more so, relative to his salary. So, I've not even really examined obtaining Harkless in that event that he's able to fulfill this year's contract. But if that's not an option, there's a stout argument for trying to acquire Harkless.

The SDS writer proposed trading Splitter. Not only do I prefer to keep him, the talk in POR as far as I'm reading is that they're really overloaded on frontcourt players, and short of acquiring a player who is definitively better, they're unlikely to be interested.

The alternative I've explored is nudging ourselves over the cap, which if I'm not mistaken (and I can be), would enable us even now to still retroactively obtain a trade exception from the Teague trade. Then, with that trade exception, we'd do a sign-and-trade w/ POR to gain Harkless.

To do that nudge, though, requires some further reconstruction, starting with revising the Delaney deal so that we sign him with cap space instead of an exception. That pushes the total salaries from $91,446,006 to $93,946,006. With that, we need to trade Moose to whoever can return to us a salary between $1,212,690 and $1,623,544. Virtually any team that has signed a 2nd rounder from this draft is a potential trade partner, but one that seemingly could be interested to trade a veteran in that price range for a big like Moose is CLE, ie, our old friend Dahntay Jones.

Make such a trade, get nudged over the cap line, and then make a SnT deal using our trade exception space with POR for Harkless who is one of those relatively rare combo forwards with the size to legitimately guard forwards of all sizes from Kawhi Leonard to LBJ, but who they appear to be unwilling to make any commitment to due to how they have already over-committed themselves for the 17-18 season's payroll.

Bonus: We would come out of this with the full MLE to-boot.

 

[Peoriabird]

5 hours ago, gurpilo said:

 definately an upgrade over some bench players here

Like who?

[DrReality]

Doesn't seem likely but he could be a decent addition

[gurpilo]

hace 16 horas, Peoriabird dijo:

Like who?

Better player today than Scott, Muscala, Bembry, Hardaway and I would say even Thabo, perhaps not today but I would cut Thabo next 3 years for next 3years of Harkless, better value, no doubt.

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, gurpilo said:

Better player today than Scott, Muscala, Bembry, Hardaway and I would say even Thabo, perhaps not today but I would cut Thabo next 3 years for next 3years of Harkless, better value, no doubt.

He isn't better than Scott...I don't know what Scott has done to anyone on this MB but he gets no respect here for some reason.  He isn't better than Thabo as Thabo was one of the top wing defenders in the league.  We'll have to see what THjr has this year without injury.  We aren't cutting Bembry for this guy and Muscala plays a different position.

[gurpilo]

hace 4 minutos, Peoriabird dijo:

He isn't better than Scott...I don't know what Scott has done to anyone on this MB but he gets no respect here for some reason.  He isn't better than Thabo as Thabo was one of the top wing defenders in the league.  We'll have to see what THjr has this year without injury.  We aren't cutting Bembry for this guy and Muscala plays a different position.

Sorry Scott is no better player, Harkless averaged on playoffs against Clippers 12,7 ppg, 6,2rpg, 0,7 spg, 0,3 bpg on ,476FG%, when Scott has made a 20pts 16 rb game? How many double-double game has Scott made? Perhaps you overvalue too much a player with no athleticism, no rebounding and no defense, Harkless has it all. 

About Bembry I agree, I would not cut him for Harkless but Harkless is better TODAY.

About Thabo, I would put at Lebron or Kawhi this guy rather than Thabo, Thabo does not have the size and we need a 3 with size. Thabo perhaps was a top defender but he is not today, is 32 and going down. I said this guy perhaps is not better today but a 3 years of this guy will be better than 3 years of Thabo.