Maurice Harkless Needs To Improve In All Areas For Orlando Magic

Maurice Harkless is among the young players the Orlando Magic are including in their foundation for the future.

But Harkless is another Magic player that Orlando has to figure out what needs he’ll be able to fill as they prepare for their offseason moves with the upcoming draft. Many continue to argue that the Magic should go for the best perimeter player in the NBA draft and forget about an inside player, especially when they look at Harkless.

But if the Magic focus on perimeter players with their first pick, Harkless is going to have to step things up in a major way. The points totals will have to be in double figures, and his rebounding should be around eight or nine boards a game. He ended his rookie season with the Magic at 8.2 points and 4.4 rebounds. His 46.1 percent field goal shooting percentage should improve a little, and his 57 percent free-throw shooting clip needs to improve a lot. His points per game average will go up if he can improve his shooting percentage significantly.

Harkless also could stand to be sharper on his ball handling. He averaged 0.9 turnovers, but he had seven turnovers in his last two games of the regular season despite one game in which he had 16 points and five rebounds against the Chicago Bulls.

Harkless has a lot of potential, but a lot of it is raw and the Magic need to make sure they’re not putting too much stock in him since he still has plenty to prove. They need to make sure they have the talent to cover for Harkless in case he fails.