Schultz: Blazers Like Harry Giles, Prefer To Trade Evan Turner

The Portland Trail Blazers are particularly high on Duke center Harry Giles, Jordan Schultz of Yahoo Sports relayed over the phone, less than an hour before the 2017 NBA Draft. “They like Giles a lot.” Schultz said, “they may consider taking him at 15.”

Giles worked out for the Trail Blazers on June 8 and the sense is that his knee issues are unlikely to be a problem moving forward. He suffered two ACL tears and an MCL tear before graduating high school, so his explosiveness may be a bit of a question mark at this point, but he is a strong interior player with a talent for defense and rebounding.

Schultz also indicated that the Trail Blazers may seek to dump the contract of Evan Turner during the draft, though teams are expectedly not biting on his bloated salary. Portland plans to keep shooting guard Allen Crabbe, who is highly paid as well, but has more room to meet his potential. Moving Turner is Portland’s No. 1 priority right now. The team may still attempt to package picks No. 20 and 26 to move up, if shedding unwanted contracts does not work out.

Expect Portland to be active in the next hour. If Giles is on the board when the team makes its selections, he may very well be a Trail Blazer next season. Turner, on the other hand, may not, depending on what kind of deal President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey can swing. With three years and over $53 million remaining on Turner’s contract, a trade could be a tough sell.