Maurice Harkless spent most of his first two years in the NBA as a starter. His third season was a disaster that saw him relegated to the bench.
In two years, Maurice Harkless was a young, raw player with lots of talent and potential. He was a starter. A seemingly surefire part of the Magic’s rotation.
Optimism was high on Harkless.
He spent hours in the gym during the offseason working on being better off the dribble and expanding his game. He finished his sophomore season shooting nearly 40 percent from beyond the arc. There was real belief Harkless would take the next step from potential rotation player to solid NBA player.
Then the bottom fell out.
How or why nobody may know. It might have been as silly as the coaching staff not liking him — there was a report they did not feel he was trying hard, something that is extremely subjective and, frankly, probably not completely true. It might have been Harkless did not make the improvements he needed to make. It might have been that the initial benching cost him confidence.
It never really came out what happened with Harkless. It certainly would be fair to blame the Magic for his lack of development. But it would also be fair to heap some blame on the 21-year-old forward. He still had a lot to learn.
The hope is a new coach will restore some confidence, along with the carrot of free agency next summer.
No matter what story you want to tell about Harkless and his season, it was a bad one. His numbers were down across the board. He looked like a completely different — and worse — player. The never-ending optimism that surrounds the individual development of players on this Magic team did not apply to Harkless.
How do we make sense of what happened to Maurice Harkless?
Next: The Good and the Bad