Heat Rumors: Moe Harkless Agrees to 1-Year, $3.6M Contract with Miami
Swingman Maurice Harkless has reportedly found his next team.
The Miami Heat have agreed to a deal with Harkless for one year and $3.6 million, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Harkless' previous contract paid him just more than $11 million in base salary in 2020. He signed the four-year, $40 million deal in 2016 with the Portland Trail Blazers at a time when contract figures ballooned as the salary cap spiked.
The St. John's product entered the league in 2012 as a first-round draft pick and spent the first three years of his career on the Orlando Magic.
Orlando eventually traded him to Portland before the 2015-16 campaign, and the Trail Blazers re-signed him and kept him until they traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers before the 2019-20 season.
The Clippers didn't even keep him for a season, though, trading him to the New York Knicks before the deadline in February.
At his best, Harkless is versatile enough to defend multiple positions as a three-and-D impact player who can take advantage of the spacing created by ball-handling guards. That is exactly what he did in Portland playing alongside Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, which helped him hit 41.5 percent of his three-pointers in 2017-18 and score 10.0 points per game in 2016-17.
That was his only career season with double-figure scoring totals, and he also amassed plenty of playoff experience with four postseason appearances in Portland.
However, Harkless was unable to replicate his impact in Portland when he played for the Knicks and Clippers. He averaged 5.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists a night in 62 games in 2019-20 before play was suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Harkless is not someone who is going to take over an offense, he can be a valuable role player who can impact the game in a number of ways and help anchor a second unit with his shooting and defense.
Look for him to also be a postseason-tested veteran leader for his new team in a secondary role.
The Heat continue to stockpile depth after making it to the NBA Finals last season. Harkless will provide depth at the forward position for head coach Erik Spoelstra. At his best, he's an efficient scorer who can serve as a spark off the bench.
