The Portland Trail Blazers have three first-round picks in the 2017 NBA Draft but that may not last. According to Sean Deveney of Sporting News, the Blazers are looking to trade combinations of their picks in order to rid themselves of bad contracts.
The Blazers gave Evan Turner and Allen Crabbe huge contracts last summer and still have Meyers Leonard on the books with a big deal of his own. With the 15th, 20th, and 26th picks in the draft, Portland is hoping to move at least one of those contracts to save both cap space and luxury tax money.
That on its own is not huge news; the Blazers don’t really have room for three rookies and they need to make big changes to their roster in order to move up the Western Conference rankings.
What is interesting, however, is that according to Deveney, the New York Knicks are interested in getting involved. According to the report, the Knicks have inquired about moving down from their position with the eighth overall pick to acquire more picks but they prefer keeping that pick and adding another.
ESPN’s Ian Begley reported that the two sides have had preliminary discussions on players involved and Moe Harkless has been mentioned:
Talks between New York and Portland are believed to be in the early stages, but at least one scenario discussed involved an additional player from Portland being sent in a trade, according to sources. Portland’s Moe Harkless is one player who was discussed in a possible trade scenario, sources told ESPN.
It is unclear which players outside of Harkless have been discussed. It’s worth noting that the Blazers have nearly $133 million in guaranteed contracts on their books for the 2017-18 season, so they may be looking to shed salary in any transaction involving their first-round pick.
Portland would likely want to attach one of their other contracts as Harkless was actually a useful player for them last year.
As for the Knicks, this would be a smart move. The team is in transition and has made it clear they want to trade Carmelo Anthony (even if Phil Jackson keeps lowering his trade value for some reason). At this point, they need to keep Kristaps Porzingis happy and build a young core around him. There’s no better way to do that than by gaining additional picks, especially if they have the cap space to take on contracts by moving Melo this summer.
