Portland Trail Blazers: 5 goals for Maurice Harkless in 2017-18

5. Improve on last year’s 3-point percentage

Last season, the Portland Trail Blazers posted the sixth-best 3-point percentage in the NBA at 37.5 percent. Moe Harkless was a huge part of that effort, shooting 35.1 percent from behind the arc on 2.5 attempts per game.

While this didn’t beat his career-high of 38.3 percent on 1.9 attempts, he still ended up improving on his 27.9 3-point percentage from the season before. This year, the goal should be to shoot within the realm of 38.3 percent on roughly 3.5 attempts.

The reason for this is simple: Allen Crabbe posted the NBA’s second-best mark from three at 46.8 percent on 3.8 attempts, and now he’s no longer residing in Rip City. If the Blazers want to see some continuity or improvement with their spacing, someone is going to have to pick up the slack from outside, and God forbid that be Meyers Leonard.