Maurice Harkless: A Player Made For The Milwaukee Bucks

Do you ever watch games involving other teams around the league, get caught up watching certain players, and end up thinking how good they’d fit with the Milwaukee Bucks?

I’m not even talking about superstars (although LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Chris Paul would fit that criteria), but just nice role players or backups with a specific body type or skill set.

Well, this is a new series of articles we’ll be running at Behind the Buck Pass, where we’ll look at some of these players (kind of longingly). It’s not necessarily about plausible trade scenarios, or contract conversations, instead let your imagination run wild and let’s talk about fit!

The first player we’re going to look about is Maurice Harkless of the Orlando Magic. Harkless is very far from a marquee name, in fact he’s often struggled to get minutes in Orlando.

There’s just something about the guy that I really love to watch though, and it was while quantifying what that was that I realized he’d make a perfect Buck.

Harkless has just turned 22, and is still a work in progress in almost every sense of the word. What makes him different to a lot of the league’s other young players is that he seems to have the potential to be incredibly well-rounded.

The New York native is the modern NBA wing player, he’s got great size, he’s got good fundamentals, can be effective on both ends, and best of all, he’s still young enough to be molded by a coach who shows himself to be willing to put in the time and effort with him.

Harkless is yet to have really found that coach either, and this season in particular it really hurt his game.

As a sophomore, Harkless was very effective in what appeared to be a developing role. He averaged 7.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.2 steals in 24.4 minutes a night, all while shooting 46.4 percent from the field and 38.3 percent from behind the three-point line.

For one reason or another though he fell horribly out of favor with Jacque Vaughn though. With Vaughn preferring to stay surprisingly loyal to dead end veterans like Willie Green and Ben Gordon, Harkless found his role reduced almost to nothing, and didn’t look as motivated when he did get on the floor.

Playing only 15 minutes per game last year, the former St. John’s man’s numbers dropped across the board, but it was his shooting decreases that were most alarming. In only 45 games, Harkless only made 39.9 percent of his field goal attempts, and a torrid 17.3 percent of his long shots.

He got greater play under interim coach James Borrego, but you can’t but get the feeling that he might just be a good player stuck in the wrong situation right now.

With the Magic having taken up their team option on him at the start of last season, Harkless is effectively tied in with Orlando until next summer. That doesn’t mean we can’t daydream about how he’d fit in with the Bucks in the meantime though.

Although the Bucks bench performed admirably at times during the season, it definitely lacked guile, creativity and dynamism.

Harkless is a finisher, and as you’ll have noticed if you watched the video above he has no problem driving, spinning, and throwing down dunks. That’s not something the Bucks get a lot of from their bench.

Then to add into the mix, he has all the attributes and physical tools to become an absolute lockdown defender.

His 6″9′ height and 7″0 wingspan make him a pest in the passing lanes (typical Bucks trait!), and his anticipation makes him even more deadly.

For his young career so far, Harkless is averaging 1.1 steals in only 23 minutes per game, and that number leaps up to a whopping 1.7 when adjusted per 36 minutes. That same defensive IQ makes him a more than capable weakside shot blocker too, with 0.9 per 36 not a shabby return for a young wing.

He may never be the type of microwave scorer that someone like O.J. Mayo is, but Harkless could offer a lot more in keeping with the developing identity of this Bucks team.

Plus, when he throws down thunderous dunks over opponents, it would give me the opportunity to tweet:

(Kanye voice) HOW COULD YOU BE MOE HARKLESS?

Yeah, I know.

Welcome to the Moe Harkless fan club.

Next: NBA Draft Prospect Watch: Montrezl Harrell

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