Elijah Harkless spent the opening stretch of the 2025-26 season battling for relevance at the deep end of the bench. He simply could not turn fleeting minutes into positive momentum. When given an extended look on 11/04 vs BOS, Harkless logged 21 minutes but generated a brutal -15.9 Impact score. His sheer lack of scoring punch and passive shot selection—hitting just 1 of 4 attempts—severely dragged down his overall effectiveness. The offensive bleeding continued months later on 02/23 vs HOU, where he missed all three of his field goal attempts in 14 minutes. While he managed to dish out four assists in that contest, his complete inability to threaten the rim allowed defenders to sag off, resulting in a -7.9 Impact score. Ultimately, Harkless's total offensive passivity makes him a glaring liability.

Elijah Harkless's mid-season stretch was defined by a tantalizing promotion that immediately collapsed into a brutal shooting slump. He earned that starting nod by torching the second unit on 02/28 vs NOP. In that contest, he posted a stellar +8.6 Impact score by pairing 14 points on crisp 5-for-9 shooting with five assists. The reward was a starting job on 03/02 vs DEN, but the elevated role completely broke his rhythm. He laid a massive egg against the Nuggets, registering a catastrophic -15.4 Impact score by forcing terrible looks to go 0-for-5 from the floor while grabbing zero rebounds. Even his highest scoring night on 03/09 vs GSW was entirely hollow. Despite pouring in 16 points, he managed a disappointing -0.5 Impact score because his inefficient 4-for-10 chucking actively stalled the offense. Harkless clearly thrives as a low-minute sparkplug, but heavier rotational burdens quickly expose his glaring limitations.