Portland Trail Blazers: 3 goals for Maurice Harkless in 2018-19

2. Remain healthy

Harkless has managed to stay off of the injured list for much of his NBA career. However, the injury bug finally caught up with him late in the 2017-18 season. On March 27, the team announced that Harkless was going to undergo an arthroscopy to remove a loose body from his left knee.

Problems in his left knee began flaring up at the beginning of the month, causing him to miss three games. However, he bounced back and had his best stretch of the season. Harkless scored double figures in five of his final six games, including 21 points in a March 18 win at the Los Angeles Clippers. He averaged 14.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.2 blocks per game in that stretch before the arthroscopy shelved him for the rest of the regular season.

Hopefully, the procedure helped to prevent any further issues with his knee. Harkless’ presence as the team’s starting small forward was huge during the latter stages of the Blazers’ regular season. Staying on the court and off the inactive list will go a long way toward helping Portland compete in 2019.