Portland Trail Blazers: 2017-18 player grades for Maurice Harkless

Weaknesses

While there were some positives to come from Harkless’ 2017-18, there were also plenty of negatives.

Harkless has dealt with inconsistent production for his entire career, and this season wasn’t any different. Moe scored 10 or more points only 13 times in 2017-18, a massive drop-off from 40 instances in 2016-17. The Blazers went 9-4 in games where he hit double-digits. Perhaps another one or two instances could have pushed Portland past the 50-win mark.

By contrast, he scored five or fewer points 30 times, including 10 scoreless outings. As a result, his offensive rating plummeted from 111.7 in 2017 to 104.8 in 2018. Coupled with his defensive rating, Harkless finished this year with a -0.1 net rating, his first negative rating since 2014-15, his last year with the Orlando Magic.

Harkless was also a middling defender a lot of the time. As stated in the last slide, his 104.9 defensive rating was a big improvement. However, it still ranked him 200th in the NBA. His -0.26 Defensive Real-Plus Minus is ranked 296th in the league. Outside of spot-ups, he basically struggled defending every other play type, including pick-and-roll ball-handlers, isolations and off-screen situations.