The most obvious candidates to start beside Bam Adebayo: Maurice Harkless
The Miami Heat brought in Moe Harkless on the cheap. He is exactly what it appeared to be on the surface, a Jae Crowder type replacement.
He won’t shoot it like Jae did when he got to Miami, but then again, Jae didn’t shoot it like Jae did in Miami before arriving in Miami. The beautiful thing is that he won’t have to shoot 40 plus percent on 100 attempts a night as Jae did though.
It would be a welcomed addition, by all means and don’t you dare get me wrong, however, if he can knock down between 32-35 percent or so, we should be fine. He does do things better or that Jae didn’t do, which is why I like the pickup and especially if Crowder priced himself out of our range like he did.
Harkless, for me, is a better all-around defender. Whereas Jae could guard all five guys in spurts as well, Harkless is a little bit bigger, more athletic, and fleet of foot, if you ask me.
Harkless also excels in the other areas of scoring outside of shooting from range, those areas that Jae didn’t excel in and although at a relative volume for Harkless’s attempts. Those areas are the dribble-drive game, the quick post up, fast-break finishing, and offensive rebounding.
In fact, he’s also a sneaky blocks kind of guy for his size and position. I don’t mind the Harkless signing at all and wouldn’t mind him in the starting unit, as although he doesn’t offer what Leonard or Okpala does, he maintains that theme of “balance” in the starting lineup, as I described in the Okpala section.